Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 179: Featuring Joey Vitale

Episode Date: May 27, 2019

On Monday's episode of Spittin' Chiclets the guys are joined by former NHLer and current color analyst for the St. Louis Blues Joey Vitale. Joey joins to talk all things Stanley Cup Finals, some Sid and Geno stories and the fight that ended his career. The boys also give their Stanley Cup finals predictions and breakdown how they think the series will go.You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/schiclets

Hey, Spittin' Chicklets listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Hello! Hello everybody, welcome to episode 179 of Spittin' Chicklets Presented by New Amsterdam Vodka Stanley Cup is startin', everybody is all jacked up Let's say hi to the boys, jump right into it Producer Mikey Grinelli coming off of two nights in Nantucket He looks like death right now and he's got a wounded hand playing through it. What the fuck did you do?

Tough weekend for the kid boys. Tough weekend. I Thursday night started there, slept face first on the floor of a hardwood closet in a pile of my own puke. Friday night, I slept in the emergency room because I sliced my hand open trying to open a window. And, uh, Saturday night I was,

uh, just about blacked out by, uh, I'd say six o'clock. So it was, uh, it was a long weekend and, uh,

I'm paying for it now. I got a couple of zippers in my hand and, uh, and, and he's getting older guys. I mean, this is like, this is like, you're not like 21 anymore.

You're the guy with the cut up hand. He's got his boss sending tweets just basically just hating your guts. Can I talk about that? Gaz sandbagged me so bad with that. He comes up to me, puts this sticker on on me puts a sticker on me and then takes it and then he's like hey can i take a picture and i'm like yeah sure i don't care yeah but dude you gotta know if that's if he i know when that guy's asking when that if that guy put something on you and ask for a picture i'd be like get away from me right now you bald fuck yes i love you but

i know you're trying to stir up something. And apparently the sticker thing is like his biggest enemy. It's his thing that that guy does at the bar. So now he's thinking I'm buddies with his enemies, and I'm like, I just want to be best friends with you. It was a tough weekend for Mike. Aside from that, Mrs. Kennedy, I was Dallas. Jesus Christ. Next up, my boy Witt. Well, no, I want to go back to what Witt said.

I think you're at the age now where you can't get that fucked up anymore. All right. Well, let me say this. I never used to get fucked up like that even when I was that young. No, no, no, no. I've puked maybe once or twice in my life from drinking because I know my limits. I was pretty good at that stuff too. I kept it in between the lines for the most part.

Grinnelli, you sleeping in your own puke. No, no, time out. I was exaggerating on that. I didn't actually sleep in a pile of my own puke. I puked a little bit. I didn't sleep in a pile. Okay, fair enough. I'm just sending you a picture of me sleeping.

There was no puke. I did throw up a little that night. But with the cut, I wasn't that drunk when the cut happened that's that's the thing i was lifting up a window i was trying to open a window of like an old shitty house in nantucket it was like a pool house behind a house and my hand just went right through oh 14 14 stitches man that's kind of kind of tendon kind of tendon probably gonna need 14 stitches you got yeah it's a lot of zippers so um when i um when i got my wrist stepped on when i was playing in wilkes-barre in playoffs for one year they when the guy stepped on it it cut like three tendons and you can't like move your fingers

anymore oh i can't i can't even feel my pinky anymore yeah you can't really the lady basically said today she's like it it's your pinky's never gonna hey i don't. Hey, I don't know if I've told this story on the podcast. I probably did like three episodes ago. I was going to be like, Jesus Christ, you biz. Get a new brain. If you say Cindy's name right now, I'm going to lose it. I can get on that butt. By the way, we're just full rolling.

We're everybody's here. So when that happened, luckily we had a doctor on staff who served in the Vietnam War or something. When was the Vietnam War? 70s. Yeah. It ended in 75. All through the 60s.

Started in the 50s. Okay. I think he was in the Vietnam War at one point. And it cut my tendon as well. So blood was just squirting out. And it wasn't really stopping i was white as a ghost by the time the guys got in the locker room and um he was able to get down there and sew it up like like just by hand like get in there and like close it off so then this

is in the locker room this is in the law that never really like for something like that you're usually out of there before stuff goes down yeah so because they had to yeah by the time i got to the hospital i probably would have bled out so i i um i go to the hospital the like i'm there for a while and then sure enough i see the doctor and i'm like dude i'm like really scared like i i can't even really move my fingers at all and he's like oh suck it up he's like you'll be out there next week well they fly me out to go see the hand surgeon in pittsburgh and then they go in to like look what's wrong they ended up just doing the surgery it was dr buderbaugh this guy's like one of the best he did my wrist okay well there you go he's one of the best surgeons in the country dude i he i get out of surgery he's like yeah

you had three fucking tendons that were cut uh obviously you cut the artery and i don't have any more feeling in my thumb really and this fucking doctor in wilkes-barre you're gonna be out there next week dude dr budaba he did my uh i don't know ltcc lfcc i don't know whatever the tendon i had to get fixed in my wrist he dude i met him his do you remember that guy's fingernails? They were long. And I was like, oh, my God, this guy's going to just be doing this tiny little work on my wrist. I was so creeped out. I remember calling my mom. My doctor's got the grossest fingernails I've ever seen.

She's like, I don't know. He must know what he's doing. But that is gross. He got him done in a nail salon. Do you remember his fingernails? I mean, do we throw the guy underneath the bus? No, I mean, he's an amazing surgeon. My wrist is incredible now.

I just remember the night before being like, oh my. The reason I can still grip things with my left hand, I'm not going to fucking talk about his fingernails. If you want to keep ripping on him. No, I love him. I love him. Love you, Buddha Bob. Don't listen to him.

He's a fucking asshole. Where are we at? Not quite the intro cup finals we're in boston yeah cup finals listen we're recording tonight on sunday at the liberty hotel at charles circle and of course this used to be the charles street jail biz uh back in the day my uncle did a little bit of stretch of time here about 50 years oh so proud so proud but it's nice to see the family's made some strides over the last couple generations from doing time to doing so proud. So proud. But it's nice to see the family's made some strides over the last couple of generations from doing time to doing podcasts. Yeah, you know. Yeah.

I mean, it's the other end of the spectrum. You just got hired full time. And all of a sudden, you take over the internet. You're better at driving the bus on the pod. You got nice fitting suits. You're doing television hits. And then all of a sudden, you get mentioned on espn the other night what tell us the story what the fuck's going on i had no clue was coming now obviously

i do you know if you're bald and pasty and wear glasses like i do you're gonna get svp'd all the time i mean he's no offense svp exactly scott van pell of course the great guy from espn he's some of them though are like it's crazy that it's not him. It really is. I mean, I've probably gotten it hundreds of times on Twitter. People tag him. I said, you probably be sick of hearing me. Here's what's funny.

No shit. I was out to lunch with my parents Friday, and I sat down. My father's like, hey, where in the world isn't Scott Van Pelt? I goes, oh, dad, I get hit all the time. Literally fucking that night it was on. Oh, no shit. That was it? It was the craziest thing.

So I obviously had no clue what was coming on. And someone on Twitter videotaped it and sent it over. Like, holy fuck, R.A. And I looked. I was just like, oh, my God. On one hand, I was sort of expecting it because people have been tagging. On the other hand, it's like, holy fuck, I'm on SportsCenter, dude. Yeah, it's cool.

The whole world sees this. R.A. made SportsCenter. And shout out to our guy, Stanford Steve. He's a huge fan of the pod. I mean, he's on SportsCenter. He calls it the best podcast on the planet, dude. You can't buy that kind of thing. Yeah, I don't know what our guy Stanford Steve. He's a huge fan of the pod. I mean, he's on sports and he calls it the best podcast on the planet. You can't buy that kind of. Yeah, I don't know what that guy's smoking.

I wouldn't say the best. But fuck, I guess I sent him some good shit. I sent him some good shit. I said, don't touch that purple haze stuff for two more days. I've never appreciated a level of delusion more than that guy. They were the best podcasts on the planet. But hey, man, thank you. No, well, he gave us all a shine, a little bit of a shout out there.

So it was awesome, man. It was like my parents got a kick out of it. Of course, my dad, you know, he's been watching SportsCenter forever. He was pretty proud. So, yeah, it's, I guess, a little feather in the cap. Because I gave up the dream of appearing on a sports and a highlight program. At like six? Yeah, before puberty.

Before the dream set in. Exactly. I knew young eyes. Like, yeah, you know, it's genetics, man. I just wasn't gifted with a lot of athletic skill. And it could be like, you work my balls off forever, and I'll never play defense for the Bruins. It's just not all dreams can come true.

I don't know, man. You got a busy stick. Very active. What's going to be next? Like, do you think maybe that now this happened and you got this, you know, big ball of confidence that maybe you get a role in a movie where you actually say a line?

What's up with Avery? Any discussion with him? I haven't talked to Avery other than just watching him with dummy fucking people blocking the pipeline every day. Time out. So I was speaking with Sean Avery recently, and I would definitely consider getting into acting.

I'd like to at some point. Maybe eventually when I'm only doing the podcast and I have a lot more free time. And I was talking to Aves about it and how he goes to these acting classes and shit. We're going to get him back on the pod to talk about his like i could see you doing that yeah but he tells these funny stories about when he's in acting class and shit that goes down but he's he's um he got a call back for a role and i'm like how does it all go down he goes nowadays it's a lot

of uh you record yourself for the first one and then they'll call you back to do it live and he dude i i wouldn't know how to memorize lines like he did it he he went on for like a minute and a half straight like straight acting where like i was like damn this guy's has talent like he's a good fucking actor yeah that's the high part is memorizing lines you know i've never had to be at that level you think that that are they'd say that's the hardest part of acting um i think some actors would yeah just yeah depending on if you're you have a good memory or not that's true you're gonna remember too is is and hopefully you got a guy who wrote the script that's down to maybe adjust to the way you would have worded it but a lot of times it's like no you gotta read

that oh yeah yeah that depends on who like the coen brothers for example the two brothers they're fucking if you're in their movie nothing no no ad libbing none of that really yeah you have to every pause if it says pause for two seconds you pause for two seconds that's like their rules because they're such great directors that people are dying to work stick to the script kid exactly yeah and then you know others are like speaking of that dude there there's probably our boy John Hamm's got to be walking around town. Town's buzzing right now with the cup finals tonight. Absolutely.

Signs all over the place coming into the hotel. Yeah, there's definitely a buzz in the air right now. It's funny because I remember I've told the story that when we went to the cup finals in Pittsburgh, everything changes in the finals. And, like, right when the finals came, you could sense a little thing. Something was different. Something was different in the air the night before the city everything's going on so i can sense right now boston's ready to go and even with today and tomorrow being holiday weekend and you know people are kind of just doing their own thing it's like come tomorrow night it'll

be buzzing here absolutely and i think there's like to me at least this similar vibe to when they played chicago in 2013 you know there's no real hate for st at least, there's a similar vibe to when they played Chicago in 2013. You know, there's no real hate for St. Louis and Boston, I'd say. I mean, even though they've played each other for titles, this will be the 11th time Boston and St. Louis have played each other for a major sport title. And they're the only two cities that have played each other in all four sports as well for a title. Wow.

Yeah, pretty crazy. But I think it'll be kind of a friendly rivalry. Remember the Chicago fans? They're so friendly, so when they come to town, there's no asshole. I feel like that's not good for you Bruins fans. I feel like you want to hate them. I'm serious. Like, you know, some poor, nice, blues, Midwestern guy will be walking around

and he'll just get suckered in the lobby. Plenty of time here in the first couple of games. You already got something going, man. We're talking about a very, very physical St. Louis Blues team who just wears you down yeah it'll get ugly it'll get ugly i mean bruin's got some big guys of their own i mean is char still a question mark right now no i think that the media is just saying it went out of their reporting on whatever i can't imagine he won't be in the lineup for game one i can't imagine So game four is probably just a little precautionary, a little maintenance.

I mean, Christ, so he hasn't played a game in basically two weeks. Yeah, yeah, it's been close to that. Now, I think that may be an advantage for him. And why I say that is sometimes, you know, when you're looking a little sluggish and, you know, you've been playing a long season, it's always nice to hit the reset button, get a little bit of rest, get back in the gym, get all the muscles twitching again.

Not to say he's not doing that type of shit in the midst of the season. But he doesn't get that much time to feel good again. But you don't add too much weight workload. Whereas now he's probably bag skating and getting... I'd imagine that two-week layover, or almost two weeks for the Bruins in general, could turn into a positive based on the fact that they were a little banged up.

Yeah, and I think that the Blues with six days a day, the Bruins with ten, what's the real difference, right? I mean, maybe in the first period the Blues seem a little more fresh, but in the end, give me four days away from a game, and it's kind of all the same at that point. I mean what the bruins did the scrimmage the other night shout out to bruins fans too who packed the garden it was 20 bucks a ticket i think it all went to charity then they had the the uh people could get loaded in there they had the concessions open but it was sold opus i completely agree on your assessment of if of whether it's uh you know a three or four

day layover or or a 10 day let's put it this way when i went on all-star break by the time i got back on the ice four days later i i i forgot how to skate you feel like you've never used a fucking chair out there in practice just to buzz around a little bit so i I agree. I won't look too much into the amount of time off other than maybe Tuca's timing. And if there's one guy who's a frontrunner for the MVP of playoffs, Con Smythe, I almost forgot the name of the trophy, he's a frontrunner right now. I think there's no doubt about it,

especially now that Logan Couture is no longer involved after St. Louis got bounced. But let's do a little of what we've been doing for the other series, a little recap of how the year went. Absolutely. Season series was 1-1. The Bruins beat the Blues 5-2 at home in January. Actually, Jake Allen was in net for St. Louis that day.

A month later in St. Louis, the Blues beat the Bruins 2-1 in a shootout. Raskin-Binnington had gone head-to-head gave up a goal each odds in the series the Bruins are 7-8 which minus 160 to make 100 on the Bruins or 100 to make 140 on the Blues I thought that was actually it was 170 at one point that line already came down I thought it was high to start I think the teams are much more evenly matched than that so I was was a little caught by surprise by that line, I guess. But right now, there's the two teams. They have much more than a passing resemblance to each other. I mean, they both got a great goalie.

They roll four lines. They got high ND. So it's not a surprise they're the last two standing. They've even scored the same amount of goals, 57, even though St. Louis has played two more games. The Bruins have gotten goals from 19 different skaters. The Blues have gotten goals from 18 different skaters. So basically what I'm 18 different skaters so basically what i'm saying these two teams are very evenly matched what do you got on it well i was just looking at the goaltending numbers coming in i got some

numbers for that after you all right sure i'm just going to start out with jordan binnington he's got a 12-7 in record coming into this series at 2.36 goals against the average and a 914 save percentage, which is good, but I feel like it's not like, you know, it's not even Binnington regular season numbers. Right, right. And, of course, he's got the one shutout. And then looking at Tuukka Rask, he's 12-5 with a 1.84 goals against average and a 942 save percentage,

which is I think that just surpassed tim thomas's numbers obviously just still a little bit of ways to go here and uh and two shutouts so far in playoffs okay tuka rask you said it biz that's the question he's been this good he's been incredible the entire playoffs and if he were to stay the same way, Bruins would probably win in the Cup. I mean, the way that it's been, it's just he looks as good as any goalie could ever look, really. Like, it's just so easy to him right now. He's currently on pace for an iconic goalie performance

in playoffs where he literally led his team to a Stanley Cup. Consistency is so big with him. He's given the Bruins such a great chance to win every single night in the playoffs. He's posted a 900 or better save percentage in all 17 of his appearances on the way to the Cup Final this year, right? So that's the second longest streak in NHL history. The only goaltender with the longest streak in one single playoff year was Jonathan Quick when the Kings won the Cups in 2012 and that was 18 straight.

So if Tuca has plus 900 in games one and two, he set a record. So the consistency is just incredible. For people who bring up Tuca and all this stuff, and we've brought this up so much, when he came into the league, it was 2009-2010. That year he was 22 years old. His goals

against was 197. His save percentage was 931. He was with Tim Thomas, right? Tim Thomas won the title. Since then, the last 10 years, in minimum of 250 games played for goaltenders, Tukarac has the best goals save percentage, 921. And then if you look at highest even strength save percentage in the last 10 seasons, Tukorask is right there, 929. It's an incredible goalie who's had an unreal career. Bruins fans will say what they want, and their main argument being that in 2013, in three of the four losses, Tukorask gave up a last-minute goal,

and in game six it was two of them. And they'll always look at him, and they'll always blame him, but they don't know what the fuck they're talking about. And any Bruins fans who doesn't think he's elite and great is a moron, but because there's so many of them, you're so dumb, so many of you Bruins fans, I want Tuukka Ras to get a title. I really would be super happy for him because he takes a lot of heat, and his career has been outstanding.

So this is going to be the test. This is when you're playing in a city like this, you have to perform. But he's leading up to this series playing the best hockey of his life. Absolutely. He's never been better. I mean, the numbers bear it out. I mean, he clearly has the advantage over Bennington in this series, as good as he's been.

If you take a little closer look, he's not as great as maybe he was in the regular season. Bennington, I took a look. He had a couple hiccups. He gave up six goals to Winnipeg back, round one, game three, six goals to San Jose, round three, game one and game five. Basically, he's had more than one or two hiccups, whereas Rask hasn't had one since maybe the first game versus Toronto.

Game one, he gave up four goals. They lost. I mean, he's been lights out since. I don't think the time off is going to affect him. And there was one other number, too, with Bennington that jumped. His even strength save percentage in the high danger zone, it was 860 in the regular

season. It went down to 808 in the playoffs. And that number has him last among goalies who play at least 500 minutes. You know, that's a guy who's giving up fucking easy goals from the inside of the slot area. And I think that's a spot, you know, the Bruins are going to have to maybe expose as a weakness because that's a huge dip to go from 860 to 808 you know again even strength high percentage zone high danger zone right there so something to keep an eye on on the flip side of that this is his first nhl season he's been

getting rode like a like a horse yeah yeah maybe the six days off to get him fresh could help him and increase those numbers. So that, we get back to the rest thing. Sometimes it hurts guys and, you know, getting out of the timing of the game. Well, maybe it'll help Bennington as far as the rest of the situation. I mean, man, you know, in your first NHL season, 82 games, you're like, holy fuck, it feels like we're playing every night. Well, imagine you're a goalie and playing every night.

You've got to get dialed in focus-wise. So it should be interesting. I'd imagine that Binnington improves on those numbers this series. And as we said, if Rask can continue his, I see no reason for the Bruins to lose this series. I mean, there's just not enough pucks going to the back of the net for it to happen. Yeah, agreed. Any other further goalie notes you want to add?

No, just I'm very interested to see with Binnington and did we mention we had Joe Vitalion? Did we even bring that up? Not yet. Okay, so we interviewed Current St. Louis Brews color commentator Brews

because I'm having wine. I'm thanking beers interviewed Current St. Louis Brews color commentator. Brews. Because I'm having wine. I'm thinking beers. Current St. Louis Brews color commentator, Joe Vitale, who played in Pittsburgh. He played in Wilkes-Barre with Biz. He played Pittsburgh, then Phoenix Coyotes. Unreal interview. He was just in here. It was a great time.

But in talking with him, we talked about the Blues. And he mentioned that Binnington was with Providence last year. And it's crazy because I can't think of his name. Sorry, I'm not that good at remembering all the prospects' names. But there is a number one goalie prospect for the St. Louis Blues, and it was not Binnington going into the year. I think it's a Finnish kid. So you're looking at last year.

They said you're going to the coast. He said, I'm not fucking going to the coast. I'm not going. So he said, all right, we'll figure it out. And said, you're going to the coast. He said, I'm not fucking going to the coast. I'm not going. So he said, all right, we'll figure it out. And they got him on loan to Providence. This is because they lost their AHL team when Vegas came into the league. It was Chicago. So Binnington goes, and he goes to Providence.

And you got to think, right, if you're looking at the Bruins organization and all their prospects down in the AHL, you're not playing a goal that another team, you don't care. You're like, yeah, he can come down, but we probably plan on playing our guy and developing him. He was so good. I talked to guys that were there. He was so good.

You literally couldn't play him. So I think that the confidence has always been there. The beliefs always been there. You couldn't not play him. And the only reason, the only reason that this all is brought up is because a lot of people within the Bruins team management coaching staff know a lot about him. Yeah. Right? I mean, you talk to some guys who are down there.

You talk to some of the coaches in Providence. Now, goaltending is goaltending. You're making the saves. You're making the saves. But to know somebody's weaknesses, whether they've gotten better or not, it's interesting to see if the Bruins' history of Binnington being somewhat a part of their organization last year matters. Wow, that's a fucking interesting take.

One little bit of extra intel could lead to a goal, and one goal is so huge in the Cubs. You never know. Good point. Let's take a look at the forwards, man. These are pretty evenly matched units. I know the Blues get Tarasenko on the top six. Obviously, he's on the top line.

But the Bruins, I'd say, have a more dynamic top six. Yes. Largely because of their top line, Bergeron, Marchand, Pasternak. Collectively, between Krejci and Bergeron, I would say they'd get the nod over O'Reilly and Chen up the middle. Krejci's been outstanding. Again, these playoffs, he certainly rises to the occasion. Have you heard rumors he's sick?

He was. He said to the press he is sick. So he, but no. Didn't sound injury related. I didn't hear anything further. Hopefully he's fine. Even so, I can kind of see the top six of these almost canceling each other out a little bit.

Not completely. I mean, like I said, they get the edge. I think this is going to really come down to the third and fourth lines, especially Marcus Johansson, Coyle, Dan Hynan. That line right there is, I won't say key to the series, but I got a little stat here too. They've outscored opponents 5-20, even strength in the playoffs while holding the 17-11 edge and high danger scoring zone chances over 77 minutes.

So those two pickups Sweeney made have been an absolute huge impact. I mean, that's a second line unit on probably any other team, but I think that's going to be a big factor for the Bs right there, the way that unit is going. I do too. And in reading some things about this series, getting some great notes, Charlie Coyle gets traded to the Bruins, and it's your dream come true. He's from Weymouth. He grows up around here.

I'd love to play for the Boston Bruins. I'd love to play in the NHL. And so his dad was getting talked to by Michael Russo. And he's a wild beat writer, I think, with The Athletic. Yeah, yeah. Great. Other way. And reading the quotes, it was just so cool to hear. So this is his

father, Charlie Cole's dad, talking. He says, when he got traded, they had that six-game homestand. And I'm not used to going all the games. I get too comfortable sitting in my chair here watching it. By the way, the only game that he has missed this postseason was game one versus Columbus when his son scored the OT winner, ironically enough. But then he says, my wife just passed a note in front of me. Tell Minnesota thank you. We liked it out there. What a place. It was Charlie's first home away from home. It was nice to see him kind of grow up there.

To good people that are throwing out notes to where he came from but then he says to go from the high of him getting traded to the bruins to knowing that now they have a good shot to make a run for the cup and they're in the cup finals is so unbelievable it's a dream come true for us and i know it is for him but for a father a mother seeing your kid reach that for your hometown team it's like he wrote just well nerve-wracking too so i think of him and being from around here and like you make the nhl one in a billion you then get traded to your hometown team and now you're in the cup final i can't imagine his like you know i was with pittsburgh and i was still so emotional thinking about raising the cup so him being on that line is cool because he's a local kid and they've and he's been important i don't think the bruins are where

they're at this year without coil so it's just somebody that's a part of their unit their third line unit who will have to be good that has local ties to be this fired up yeah he's been he was a moose those first two rounds when they really needed it because again the birds are online they get shut down a little bit yeah they were struggling but yeah he's been he was a moose and joe hansen and i think people forget when he was in washington before he was with new jersey he was an outstanding player, man. And then he got the concussion, ironically, from Marshawn. So, you know, we didn't get to see a lot of him.

But his game's been peaking, I think, lately. I'm just very interested to see who they line match against each other. Yeah, exactly. What's going to happen here? Well, it's Bollmeister and Pareko is the D pair against the top line. But you'll have to see the forwards. You know what they're reminding me of right now is the Hal Gill-Rob Scuderi

special when they ended up beating Detroit in the year that after you had been gone. The piece. Yeah. Scuderi. The piece. But to me, I mean, I'd like to see O'Reilly and Bergeron. To me, that's like a mirror. Marquee. That's a... I would

obviously have to give, based on history, the edge to Bergeron because he has gotten the job done and he's been elite for a long time. He's done it longer. Done it longer. But O'Reilly is a selkie-type player. He can play a 200-foot game with the best of them. He's in the Kopitar. He's in the Barkov category.

He's in the Patrice Bergeron category. He's right there so i know i'm giving the edge to boston up front a little bit but i mean the depth and the way that that offense is balanced for for st louis is nothing to bat an eye on and when you get a few young guys who are all of a sudden able to make contributions like that black kid is that you say it bless is it it's actually blay it's blay oh yes him and thomas are like thomas is nasty too thomas is filth i didn't even know he was a first rounder started looking at that like this kid has the pedigree to do not it's not surprising what you're seeing him do even even more so in a case of like let's use Los Angeles when they won their first cup,

when they called up Dwight King and Nolan and those guys, and all of a sudden, and Toffoli and Pearson, and all of a sudden these young guys in their organization were not only playing well but making contributions. Playing big roles. And at the perfect time of when Quick found his game, and they had the pieces. I mean, they had Carter, they had Richards, they had Kopitar.

They had everything. And everything came to fruition at the perfect time. So don't sleep on this St. Louis offense. I know that Boston, I think, has the edge, but it should be interesting. Yeah, I agree. I give Boston the edge offensively on forwards. Not a ton, a little bit, but also another matchup is the fourth line. St. Louis, you've got Babashev, Sundquist, and Steen

is probably more skilled than the Bruins. We've got Nordstrom, Corralia, and Achari, but they have more sandpaper. So you're kind of like, is the talent going to win out or is the grit going to win out versus these two lines, assuming they go against each other? Right. It's going to be difficult for them to sustain that offense with limited ice time. It just so happens, as Joe said in the interview coming up,

is when everything else wasn't getting it done all of a sudden, well, the fourth line got hot. They just had been finding ways to win. We'll definitely be interested in that fourth line matchup, though, especially after what the fourth line for the Blues did last series. No doubt. And it's crazy to think that this team, and it's been beaten to a drum January 3rd there in last place,

but 7-9-3 to start the year with the big summer moves of O'Reilly being the biggest, Perron, and then you got also Bozak coming in. It was time to do some damage. 7-9-3, Mike Yo gets gassed. All right, well, what are we going to do? We're going to fire the coach. Craig Berube comes in, and we keep saying we talked to Joe about this. We'll go to him soon, but Berube right away, 8-9-1 the first 18 games. So it wasn't much different, really. And then he talks about things just changed. And it's crazy to think that it took him that long, but once in a while it does. And it's

funny to think that since January 3rd, they're the best team in the NHL. So when people say this is such a fluke, a team that was in last place in January is in the cup final, the fluke was the start. It's not that much of a fluke looking at the roster to see him in the

cup final right so now that you're here this isn't that crazy it was the beginning was that bizarre to have that go down the way it did uh one storyline that's kind of slipped under the rug i know a few people have talked about it is is bacchus yeah yeah i mean he was the captain of those teams that could never get over the hump yesterday so we're recording sund Sunday. Saturday was the three-year anniversary of his last game for the Blues when they lost to the Sharks in the Western Conference Final. So three years ago, so not a ton of guys still left from the team when he was there. I guess a decent amount, but still, it's happened pretty quick

where all of a sudden they're back and he's facing them. Listen, I don't want to speculate or anything like that, but I want to say even early in playoffs when Backus got put in the lineup, it looked like he'd gotten hit in the head. Was it Carolina? Oh, no. In Columbus, somebody checked him in the head. I think it was Columbus.

And this guy's had a lot of concussion issues. And you hate to see it keep happening to a guy. You don't know how much longer he's going to be playing, especially he's made some decent amount of money. This could be his last run, and it'd be interesting to see if he ends up getting his cup. And it's interesting because he's in a position, he can either break St. Louis' heart or they can break his heart,

and he's actually looking to become the fifth former Blues captain to win a cup after leaving St. Louis, which is pretty interesting. Scott Stevens did it after he left for New Jersey. Brett Hull did it, of course, with Dallas and Detroit. Chris Pronger won it in Anaheim. And Dallas Drake was the captain in St. Louis. He won a cup with Detroit. So Bacchus looking to join that kind of unique, exclusive club.

And kind of the new Joe Thornton as he passed on the torch when he got eliminated. I would say Jay Bomeester. Jay Bomeester, man. I got some stuff here. Very happy for a guy like this to go through what he went through in the beginning of his career. And you remember, he played for a long time before he played in the playoffs.

Yeah, Florida. All those years in Florida. Did you guys see his post-game interview after they advanced? No. He was just wicked. Like, yeah, okay. He's like, oh, yeah, you know, I'm probably going to go slam 24 beers. And then call me because I'll talk to you for five hours.

And then I'm going to all of a sudden flip on that switch in my head. That gives me a fucking insane personality. I had that, it gives me a fucking insane personality. Well, this year, 35 years old, after just this unbelievable career of consistent play and not missing games, and somebody who was just skated. I'm telling people who didn't see him at 20 years old, I don't know if I've ever seen somebody skate like this guy.

It was a horse. He was like the wind. It was just so easy for him to pivot with anyone it was nobody could beat him wide but it was a long run and then this year he got scratched mike yo scratched him for the first time in his career he was a healthy scratch that was october 20th 16 year career first time you hear that you're not good enough to go that night that's tough yeah i mean i i was told first time i was told that um it was tough for me and i didn't have half of what he what this guy's done literally i didn't do half of what he's done

so i can imagine that was hard then he missed some more games with staying as a healthy scratch but he said he said after he said looking back um i actually just needed more time probably there's a bit of the gray area where you want to play you don't want someone stealing your job but at the same time maybe physically you weren't able to play your best so he said after that it really kind of turned around and he started getting figured it out and then his entire season changed when craig barubi and mike van ryan the d coach there decided pareko and bomeister are a shutdown pair yeah and since them those two guys have taken off they've had great second halves of seasons and in the first three rounds they've played against the top line every time been really solid they both can skate parekos he's the top 50 defenseman in the nhl 100 he is he's like

he skates like a gazelle he's physical he can he can canon yeah he's drago a little bit he doesn't fight but he's he's drago and and And he's just underneath Petrangelo in points. I know I butcher that guy's name all the time. I think he's got 11 points in this offseason. Yeah, actually, I got it right here. Yeah, Petrangelo's got 13. Parico's got 11. I mean, this guy can snap the puck around.

So entering the playoffs this year, I couldn't believe this. Pucker on. So entering the playoffs this year, I couldn't believe this. Bo Meister has played 1,184 regular season games, which is or was, I should say, the most among active players with Otis Stanley Cup final appearance. So the 2002 third overall pick, who was fifth in that draft, it's now not a record for him that he holds anymore i mean i guess it is but it's over now and he's happy to do so and

it's funny the other guys now beneath him uh most regular season games go to stanley cup final ryan suiter is now the the the next guy coming up at 1073 games3 games, Jason Palmanville at 1,060, and then Dion Phaneuf at 1,048. So crazy to think that three, four modern-day players are the guys with the most games played without playing in a cup final. Yeah. One number two, I thought you'd for sure jump out at

with career earnings, 70 million for Boone Meester. I thought you would have been all over that. This guy's a fucking cash machine now. He's been making millions upon millions for skating like the wind for 27 minutes a night, snapping it tape to tape, getting 35 to 47 points a year. I think he probably

had more than that one or two years, but consistent play, never misses a game, doesn't need to be physical because nobody can And the type of guy have one pair of blue jeans. So you know he has about... He probably has more than what he earned in the bank now he's probably just probably his fridges when he was young in the summer back home in edmonton or whatever it's probably just beer and like a couple g2s like i mean it's like i don't think he's he's a simple guy that just gets it done no well now obviously we started talking about the d

we might as well do that a comparison then i think we should go to Joe after that and then we'll pick up the other things the rest of it and then give our predictions and what not sure yeah talking about the D I mean same as up front boys you got two core they really resemble each other the Blues certainly bigger Petrangelo we just talked about him he's been a horse for the Blues 25-33 of ice time

13 points in 19 games again Pareko's got 11 points I'm sorry, 11 assists. Has him with the tide for the league lead. The second pair, Pareko and his follow-up, Petrangelo's lead when it comes down, eight minutes, pushing the offense, all that shit. I get the edge to St. Louis on D. I get no problem giving that.

As good as the B's defense has been, St. Louis a little bigger, a little tougher. And they got guys who can do it at both ends as well. Gryzlik was one guy who was banged up coming into this series. We don't know if he's completely healed. I saw that at the last game in Carolina. Seems like he was kind of favoring his shoulder a little bit, wasn't he? He took a beating in that series. He got a couple of real tough hits.

I can imagine he's hurting as much as anyone that's good. He's one guy in order to help maybe get Boston to what St. Louis' level is, is if he's playing up to what he can do. I mean, he's got some points in his play. I think he has three goals and four assists for seven points.

He's been playing solid minutes for them. If he can maybe elevate his game, and hopefully he's healed up from whatever for them if he can maybe elevate his game and and hopefully he's healed up from whatever he was banged up from he's a guy who can help elevate them i agree with that i agree with that completely i just think that the blues defense is noticeably better than the bruins i just look at around i look at the whole group and I think Chara's not the player he once was he still makes a great impact defensively but get him the puck you can forecheck and pressure him to make some mistakes and turn it over a little bit and the Blues have guys that are very reliable

even with Dunn not in the lineup the way Gunnarsson's come in it's just that is their strength it's their D because offensively their d can produce they get you know guys that can score points and score goals and create and they got guys who can defend so i'm not dogging the bruins d but overall st louis gets the edge for me there a a favor a favorable swing for boston would be if grizzlyates. And for whatever reason, we're not sure if Dunn's in yet. He may be. That's a big loss for the Blues, man. He's another puck-moving defenseman.

I know Gunnarsson stepped in a good job. But it's different. It's like you've got to provide a little bit more offense, especially against a goalie who's got a 942 save percentage coming into the finals. So you need guys who can snap the puck around a little bit. You think that St. Louis' third pair, Gunnison, Bortuzzo, they might be more vulnerable than Grizzly and Clifton on the B side.

I mean, Clifton and Grizzly, they're pretty responsible, I'd say, both ends. It's all going to depend on coaching and who you get out there against them. Home ice, that's why home ice is very important. That fucking Clifton, though, I know we've talked about him. Quinnipiac to sign an AHL deal to now play in the cup final. Doesn't look like a rookie. And I'll tell you,

before you saw Clifton and the couple games he played in the regular season and you said, Bruins won't have Kevin Miller and they'll get to the cup finals, you say, no way. Because you look at the holes,

this kid's stepped in and been able to kind of allow you to not miss Millerer as much because they're actually similar the way they play too like they hammer guys they're willing to just get dirty they can move they can move their feet move the puck the good news for the bruins is as you just kind of alluded to is there's there's not any weak links there's competent defensemen back then maybe they're not of of the status and competence of what st louis is but they're giving you a chance to win yeah it's kind of like he's following like

you know how mcquade was around then kevin miller almost kind of usurped him and now clifton's kind of the same like i said same old as kevin miller not that he's pushing him out but you know same type of play he's tough kid he doesn't load he doesn't look like a rookie out there and also too like to echo what you said about coil i mean put yourself in grizzy's shoes man you know he grew up right across the bridge his father cleaned the bruins ice i mean the father would go between the father's like if they win the stanley cup on this ice like are you shitting me there should be a that's john scott movie territory yeah i mean john griz the father i've known for years awesome guy to know that he you know he's been cleaning the ice, working the bull gang forever.

And now his kids, they're going to the Stanley Cup for the team he's been worshiping, working for. It's got to be amazing for him. Yeah, that is movie-like. That's like Rudy shit. Absolutely. And like I said, they grow up in the shadow of the garden, basically. So it's definitely living out a dream. So obviously, I'm a bees guy pulling father, but particularly for Grizzito.

All right. I think that you've been telling me for a while now you want to like write movies and stuff. I think this might be your – Yeah. Okay. Grizzie's writing a – Can we get an obviously count on this episode so far? Oh, by the way.

By the way. I just – I have notes, everyone. Yeah. Never. This is my first time as a guy. Bravo. Bravo. No.

So the Bruins have won seven straight as of right now. Twice in team history has the Bruins won more than seven straight in the playoffs. And both times they've won the Stanley Cup. They won their final ten games in a row in 1970 where they beat the Blues. And they won nine in a row in 72. So if they can get game one, that shows them that they're going to be looking pretty good for going in but i think we go to vitality now yeah so much oh man i think you guys are going to love this interview biz set it up what'll what are the first of all great guy and a crazy story what he's

been through and where he's at now so i think we'll be pleasured to bring pleased to bring you joe vitality uh probably one of the most salt-earth human beings I've ever met in my life. Oh, yeah. Three Midwest salt. Just salt-of-the-earth. Man-rocker, too. Yeah, he's a handsome fella. Now he's got his tooth back in.

Good hair. Yeah, I'm jealous. All right. Enjoy Joe Vitale. This interview was brought to you by Dollar Shave Club. You know those times when every day feels the same, like you're on autopilot, how you're so caught up in your routine that you forget to take care of yourself? Well, Dollar Shave Club makes it easy to take care of yourself when that happens.

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it comes with everything you need for a great shave. The executive razor, shave butter, and face cleanser. You're going to love it as much as I do. Get your starter set for just $5 at dollarshaveclub.com slash chicklets. That's dollarshaveclub.com slash chicklets. Our next guest is a St. Louis guy. He played 234 NHL games over six seasons with the Penguins and Coyotes. He was traded for Pavel Datsyuk back in 2016.

Got to mention that. Today, you can hear him doing color commentary for his hometown blues on the legendary radio station KMOX. In his first season of the job, he's going to the Stanley Cup final. Welcome to Spitting Chicklets, Joe Vitale. Thanks, guys. Man, it's an honor. We actually didn't even explain to Joey that you have to keep that mic

right about here the entire interview. You should know. He's a radio guy. Oh, I know. And if he fucks up, we'll just throw him right under the bus. Now, I want to talk about the time that I met Joe Vitale when he was drafted to the Pittsburgh organization at the end of his amazing Northeastern career.

What a husky. This highly touted draft pick. He actually went fairly late for how good you were. What round were you drafted? It was last round. Yeah, it was the last round. I was a diamond in the rough. This fucking guy comes in

rocking the biggest Italian peppercorn gold chain you've ever seen in your life and i'm thinking this who the fuck is this guido sarducci we just brought in and signed and who's going to be playing with them well sure as shit is nasty gets thrown on the fourth line with me in our first game because you came in at the end of the year so you ended up playing five games that year. First fucking shift, we're out there. This motherfucker tries to dangle at the far blue line.

Turnover. Biz knows that is not what people on my line do. I just came from Hockey East where it worked, and it does not work in the American League. So this guy turns it over at the blue line. We end up going down and spending about a minute in our own end. And this is my first shift of the night. And I get back to the bench. And I obviously felt bad afterward.

But, you know, sometimes the wires crossed. I lost my goddamn mind on this guy. I was like, get that fucking, fucking deep. Wait, was this after? So this was after your college season? We just lost to Cornell in the tournament my senior year. And the next day, my agent's like, hey, you signed. You're going to sign with Pitt.

I'm like, great. So I flew out of there. So two days later, I'm playing with Biz. And he's right. He blows up on me. When I go back, the gold chain thing, I do. And I don't have it on right now because I love to make too much noise. My dad gave it to me when I was baptized.

I'm like hardcore Italian. Yeah, this is like Sunday dinner. 100%. Like if you don't have pasta stains on your shirt get out of here right so so in every like special occasion he gave me like another thing so when i got confirmed i got this blessed mother gold like thing and this thing's heavy and then i got married i got a new cross and then when i had kids he gives me like an h for harper and S for Summer. This thing is like weighing me down. I got neck problems today. But every time I see my dad, he's like, hey, where's your necklace? I'm like, oh, sorry, Dad.

Yeah, hold on. He's like, I got another pendant for you. No, but then getting back to Biz and the first shift, he's absolutely right. You know, two days ago, I'm the stud at Northeastern, just, you know, just toe dragging and blue line, do whatever I want to do. You know what I mean?

And then I'm in the American League, and he's my line mate. Oh, my God. He roasted me. And Biz wasn't a guy that would roast you to your face like, hey, dude, come on. Get that puck in. He's like, get the puck in. The coach heard it. The team heard it.

The people in the third row heard it. I just shrink. I go over to the box. I grab the PA mic. third row heard it i'm like i just like shrink i go over the box i grab the pa mic i'm like i'm like joy you don't get that fucking fucking deep i'm like hey mr t you don't get that fucking fucking deep i'm gonna strangle you with that fugazi necklace jeff barrett's a pop bro he's like why is bitch screaming at the new guy? Shout out Jeff Bauer. He's like, hey, Ray Sherrill, all up there.

He didn't get it in. It wasn't my bad. I have my guy. You know, he's doing that whole thing. But no, truthfully, though, the problem with playing with Biz, well, I mean, there's a lot of problems playing with Biz, first of all. You've got to be resilient for giving and taking passes. Never on the tape, ever.

No, right in your feet every time. He breaks more blades than he does make tapes to tape when you dump it you should have passed it when you pass it you should have dumped it and then you come back to the bench like dude dude did you see me on the back door i was wide open i'm like do you see these things on the side of my eyes those are blinders no i did not see you on the fact this was kind of always like i was open guy always like you didn't see me bro i'm like i didn't even know you were on the ice to your point with i mean honestly to your point he he really the problem with him the biggest problem was he was a fourth line player but he thought he was a second line player those are the worst players to play with hands down like let me give you a little context so like i play with bj crombie in arizona we were atrocious that year

biener with like six minutes to go in the game we're down by goal he's already on tiny skates he's by the door he goes anyway okay just checking the clock whatever that's biener and then you knew that i love that as a centerman for the fourth line because you're like, yes, we're done. Get it. Biz, we'd be down by two goals, and we were playing in Pitt, like playing a rivalry game in March, and the rotation would go through a few times. And he's like, why are we not out there?

I'm like, we got to get out there, right? I'm like, no, absolutely not. We are good. We are exactly where we need to be right here. To my defense, I had nine goals a year that I played with this guy in the American League. That's a good amount of talks. What do you mean? For a fourth liner?

That's incredible. Not one second of power play time. I don't play power play time. I don't play penalty kill. I'm nothing. JM Daou, remember? He was our winger when I got called up. He was silky.

We were buzzing, yeah. I've been working out for four years straight Northeastern like you guys were gassed at the end of the year you need american hockey leagues no joke and i played two games a week in the college schedule it's a complete joke oh it's the best oh isn't it the best but it's like you're so rested i was working out already i got in there i was flying we were buzzing like todd reardon was putting us on the top line we were starting games i think that think that if your line's going, especially in the American League, I mean... It's a long enough season. Play them. If they're going that night, just let

them go. I thought we were going. I really resent the think you're a second line guy comment. No, I do remember when Todd got called up or I got signed with and I went to Wilks and I was a little late for the first game. You guys were going to Binghamton and I hopped in with Jim Britt who's with Pittsburgh now.

He was the video coach. We drove out to Binghamton. I'm like, I don't know what to expect. I've never even seen an American Hockey League game. The warm-up start and there is this guy on the other team with a freaking mohawk. Jeremy Jablonski. Jablonski. And he is patrolling the red line.

And you fought him twice that night. You remember that game in bingo? I got Bambi'd. Oh, buddy, you got tattooed twice. You buckled hard. You fought him twice? Oh, I did.

He caught you once and you fought him again, you savage. Okay, this is when they introduced the new tighter fit jerseys and this guy's head was like a goddamn tomato

because it barely fit on him because he was like, I don't want to say he was using steroids, but I would imagine he was using steroids but i would imagine he was using steroids i mean there was a couple needles on the ice during that one but uh you know i'm not going to point fingers but uh he was so jack and so strong and i was an up-and-comer you didn't even grab like i couldn't even yeah i couldn't grab his jersey because it was like a dry fit shirt on on a skin tight dry fit but. But, yeah, he tattooed me a little bit better on the first go-around, and then he ended up running one of our guys pretty bad,

and I'm like, Jesus Christ, I got to go again. Okay, so I thought you were actually like, no, I'm doing this again. No, I knew my role. I knew I was a fourth liner, and I knew I had to get pucks deep. I remember that. I remember thinking, like, what is this league? And there was a game we actually lost. You guys lost in a shootout.

The centerman from Binghamton comes down and shoots over John Curry's shoulder. It goes through the net. The ref doesn't see it. He calls it a no goal. And we end up winning the game. I'm just like, what is going on? Like, what league is this? We had video review in Hockey East for fuck's sake.

I know. I'm just like, what's happening? I already mentioned you went to Northeastern right down the street from here what other schools were you considering

back then and what made you come to Northeastern this was it I had no other options you're so foolish this was it I swear

I talked to Brandon Walsh and people know did you hear when we had Walsh on I loved it I texted him today I loved it so he said

oh I didn't know Joey's coming on so he texted me he said you were he said that if they didn't grab you when they did, the next year you would have been a top 10 recruit out of the USHL. So it was early that they picked you up and Northeastern was the play?

I was old, so I got a couple walk-on offers, like Maine, but then, I don't know, like Bentley. Nothing really. So I was like, man, do I just stop playing? No shit. You thought that at one point? 100%. That's crazy.

I'm not going to go back up there and be a junior. I'm not even going to make it. I don't even know. But Greg Cronin. No shit. You thought that at one point? 100%. I was like, well, that's crazy. I'm not going to go back and be a junior. I'm like, am I even going to make it? I don't even know. But Greg Cronin, Brendan Wallace, they just got the job at Northeastern. And I didn't even, I haven't even heard of Northeastern. I didn't even know where it was. I had to look it up on Google. I'm like, oh, it's in Boston. That's cool. Yeah, I'll go to Boston for engineering. I thought it was out west. No, yeah, I know. Honestly, God, I had no idea.

That's it. You beat me to it. You fought game pretty quick today. was joking but Joey was serious And keep in mind he's the one with the four year degree At Northeastern Well she picked me up and Broke every rule in the recruiting book I mean

I got on Fenway Park I was walking on the mound at Fenway We went to Abe and Louie's He just went to town He showed me the best time, him and Greg. Did he introduce you to your wife? No, no. I didn't meet my wife until freshman year, like three months in.

It's freshman year. Oh, you waited that long into freshman year to meet your wife. That's what my brother did, too. He went to school. He goes, any advice? I go, yeah, I don't get a girlfriend. Three weeks later, he's got a girlfriend, and they're getting married now. At least he married her. I didn't mean to interrupt you there but you got

recruited no yeah so then uh walsh and crow picked me up and like hey you want a player i'm like absolutely the the organization was in shambles mike morris was hurt yep he got a concussion so everyone was like hurt incredible player oh unreal number one draft pick our number first rounder for san jose we played on the same team from like 9 to 15 yeah he was incredible but he was down like they lost a lot of guys injuries so i came in and started as a freshman it was a good situation but uh oh my god it was hard like honest to god like greg and walsh a typical day uh class from eight to one you go to the rink you practice for like an hour and a half we get off we take our helmets off and our skates and we work out for an hour in our equipment.

Shut the fuck up. We would get off the ice. I swear to God. That's Walshie. Half the team at that point, we'd all get something to eat. Half the team would go to Roxbury and we like read to inner city kids and like parents who were like in crack houses and we play like street ball with them. And the other half of the group would go to L Street in Southie and we would just beat

the shit out of each other. We box. We just keep the crap out of each other we box we just keep the crap out of each other like no way i swear so walsh we would get home at like 10 o'clock at night we're just like this is called talking like what's happening but uh no so walsh and grow they they ran that program like that and and and they both uh with gene riley they get a lot of credit to turn that whole thing around. Now it's, God, it's an unbelievable place now. You guys are, I mean, probably in dynamite shape, though, like that kind of physicality, beating each other up, I imagine. I mean, like, you guys have been in fights. I mean, there's something to be said about it.

Yeah, not in hockey. But, you know, I mean, like, when you get banged up, like walking out of a ring, it humbles you, right? I mean, it does make you tougher, but it taught me a lot of really good things, and it taught us all a lot of good things and and you know that was the first year we won like three games that year but then after that like man we just went on a chair we we really kind of helped turn that program around which was awesome so we kind of got ahead of ourselves but before we go to turn and pro and all that

growing up in st louis you could have never imagined it would be what it is now with these kids coming out of there huh unbelievable it wasn't i don't even remember ever meeting a kid who played in st louis like from st louis it was crazy joe pomeranski was he from st louis yes he was i think he was the one no you're right i mean you guys had cam on a couple months ago and you guys were talking about it cam i mean cam was one of the first ones i mean he was from eureka cam and i used to play together we used to go out to eureka where he was born cam is an animal like not many guys like to fight he loved to fight like he loves we would go to like parking lots in eureka and i'd go with my brother and he'd be like joe just go knock the guy's cart over and

then we'll jump in like or whatever i'm like jesus christ that's a little squirrely like that's a real tickle yeah like how about we just do groceries and get the fuck out of here but he was always looking for a fight and he would always bring me my brother along and we'd all be taking our shirts i was like joe come out here and take your shirt off the team's out there stretching i'm like oh crap okay i'm like 13 like like i had a little bit of package going on but nothing too serious yeah like oh wait what but no you're right no no one was playing hockey you know i grew up i was fortunate i played with like paul stassny and those kind of guys we

we grew up together and some of the blues stuck around to coach peter stassny was around now keith kachuk's there and now you're starting to see it a lot but you know we we played because we loved it we loved playing and competing we had no we weren't going anywhere we just you know we were consumed in the process and and it wasn't kids that were saying like. We were consumed in the process. It wasn't kids that were saying, I want to be in the NHL. You guys loved hockey and doing it. That's awesome.

One day at a time. We didn't care about it. To play college hockey, that was a dream back then. Were you the cool kid in high school who got the full ride? Were all the ladies in town? We walked on to Northeastern and had to read in Roxbury. No, I was a complete loser in high school. We were always in tournaments. I never went out. I always come back to school Monday so jealous

because all these guys have these awesome stories. I was in Chicago or Detroit because to your point, because we didn't have any hockey. We had to go every weekend to Detroit, Chicago, Boston. What parents were driving you guys? Parents, I have one of six kids. My mom and dad were just saints.

Dude, that's incredible. They drove us. They flew us. My sisters were all just tag-along. They never complained. Wow. Your family grew up in the rink. Yeah.

Oh, my God. Yeah, the little rink rats. And my brother and I played, and that was pretty much it. I brought up your gorgeous wife, and obviously you did very well for yourself. and that was pretty much it. I brought up your gorgeous wife and obviously you did very well for yourself. No, but you came from that family environment and you saw how your sisters came along,

didn't complain, and I'm sure you guys are one big happy family. You have one of your own. You met your girl three months into your first year of college and then you ended up going on to have three children with her. It wasn't the plan to meet a girl freshman year. Like I said, I was just kind of focused on hockey you were 26 i was trying to get my ass kicked every day and in the southie and find my teammates but uh no i we met freshman

year and and it was a situation where you know you know when you know and i was like hey i can't let this one go away she has no idea how terrible i am and somehow i tricked her and i just gotta hold on for how did you how did you pull that off bring me through the and somehow i tricked her and i just gotta hold on for how did you how did you pull that off bring me through the night where you met her and like you probably fumble fucking your words like crazy well it was actually after a game so i showed up in my suit connor larkins oh yeah up huntington avenue joe said tilly got me in the back door oh you guys got to get this kid on. He is an absolute animal.

So he's sneaking. Come on, come on, come on. The back door. Whatever. He's doing his thing. And so I sneak in the back door and she's there and her roommate actually hits on me. So her roommates like hitting on me and like she shows me her underwear. I mean, we're like tipsy.

You show your peppercorn, your Mary like you're mary you're joseph you're fucking pendants and then so my wife and my girlfriend or whatever at the time she just slides in and said she's like hey i gotta save you whatever and so we started talking and i mean the rest was history she played volleyball northeastern so she was a volleyball player so you got any old clips yeah hey let's see you got any youtube clips on there all right get the computer going. I mean, for the people who haven't seen him, he's a man rocker. Yeah. I can see why he got a hot look.

He's attracted to a wife. I mean, he's a man rocker. I think it was the gold chain that really kind of sucked her in. But how many pendants are on there? Oh, my God. I can probably tell you. We could probably pay for the wedding with that gold chain. So three kids and then ages.

Your oldest looks what? Seven, eight? We're eight, six, and four. So we got married and God, we just started having kids. Right away, dude. One after the other. I couldn't stop having kids with her. So I had to get a vasectomy.

I'm like 28 years old. I get a vasectomy. My doctor's like, are you sure? You know what you're doing? I'm like, well, I'm going to have like 20 kids at this rate. So I got to slow her down somehow. So I get a vasectomy. How many Philip Rivers got? Oh, only 17 more to have like 20 kids at this rate, so I got to slow her down somehow. So I get up a second. How many Phillip Rivers got?

Oh, 17 more to go then. I'm like, no, I got to. I'm going to have one that's going to play for the Blues. I'm going to stop until I can tell right out of the boom. No, it's funny. Actually, my kids are super unathletic. It doesn't drive me mad, but my friends at our parish and kids around,

and just people like, you would think that Mrs. Vitale plays plays volleyball mr vitality played hockey like their kids my kids like chasing butterflies in the outfield it's hilarious like but i love it they're into legos and man we go we have so much fun they're great kids hey yeah hey i i used to be into legos and i thought i was gonna be an architect boom look at look at you. Fuck you. No, I'm worried. Joe's swinging back because he's still bitter about me telling him to get that fucking puck deep. Oh, it was terrible.

Yeah, you ruined his first shift. You've kind of not kept it as tame as I thought you were going to keep it because Mike Caruso from the St. Louis Blues. Friend of the show. Friend of the show. He teed us up with Jon Hamm, so once again again thank you um i get a text from joe yesterday joey and he goes uh yeah my crew so was just you know making sure i came on and i didn't say anything like to regret and i'm like do you think we would put you in a bad situation i think the pr guys i think they're like they like

our show but they're also like ah when one of their guys are coming on, they gotta be like, hey, man, we listen, but you can't. Like when Biz is talking about, so and so, let's just maybe put the mic down. You know who I talked into coming on last night? Who? It was Brock Besser. Okay. I asked him to come on via text.

He's like, yeah, I know. What time last night? Saturday night, Memorial Day weekend. Yeah, that's after i made him remember saying yeah i made him funnel a couple beers and i and i i made him suck a tequila shot out of a girl's belly button and then no no no no no no but uh he said he's gonna come on i said buddy we'll let you edit the thing and if you're saying you say that you regret we'll take it out we're not here to hurt the guys But you were keeping it in because you're a piece of trash. Well, you know, it's a sensitive time.

No, but you're right. I think everyone's like, dude, that's great. You're going to go on the show. But, oh, by the way, let's just keep her tight. Let's keep her tight. I'm like, listen, these guys are professionals. They're not going to put me in a bad spot. This is Cup Final episode.

This is different. Cup Final starts today. We're just going to talk hockey. I swear. Well, I was going to retell the shitty Cindy story. Oh, my God. We got that, Mike. We got that.

Well, no, but about because we got to talk about this series going on. But forget that. Kelly Chase moves on. We interviewed him one time. One of the best guys going. Awesome guy. And the spot opens up for color guy for the Blues radio team. how did it come about and what a dream scenario for you i'm guessing yeah dude it was it was crazy this was in the summertime and and i'm kind of like in the

backyard with my son chasing butterflies i have no idea what i'm doing with my life and just driving my wife bananas so i retired i got knocked out she. Jeez. October of 15. October 15. Yeah. So Ben, you're looking at three years of kind of just figuring things out. Yeah. I'm just trying to find myself. Yeah. There you go.

No. So yeah, I got knocked out. Got, you know, got kind of wounded up there pretty bad. But then made a little quick rerun. And then I started getting my stuff together. I started feeling healthy again. It was great. Right around April.

And then two months later, I get a call from Chris Kerber, who's the play-by-play guy who's just absolutely fantastic. I don't know how this guy doesn't have a TV job somewhere. He's so good. And he said, hey, let's meet for lunch.

I heard you were in town and you have any interest in being the radio guy? You didn't know him or you did? No idea. I didn't even know the job was vacant. I didn't even know it was vacant. I swear to God. I know Chaser's been doing it 18 years.

I grew up listening to Chaser and Ker so you're right yeah it's like i was like are you for real yeah okay i'll meet you for lunch like you know whatever and and we met for lunch and then we did a period together like a simulated period on a big screen with the producer he called a little tryout action yeah he's like dude just study the doing the wild and the blues an october game that's all he told me so i kind of went through the wild roster and i i showed up my suit and you're like i got distracted fuck i didn't prepare god damn safari shot at i'm like i'm like taping stuff to the wall like the lines and the stats and everything like gp equals games played it's so true and we did a period and you know i thought it went okay and he thought it went well enough where i sat down talked to like army and tom stillman and z and all the guys in

the front office of the blues and and i got a call right on august right when my kids were starting school like hey dude if you want this is yours for you man i was just like yeah how pumped were you yeah i was so excited you have to move you're in a hundred percent you're in hockey you didn't have to move it's your hometown favorite team it's just everything and it's so good to hear that it was right after a couple months after you started feeling healthy again and boom you get a call like that it's like fate that's good for you it was special man it was no no training whatsoever like just that that was the first time you did it that day nothing never did a thing how do you know when to talk yeah just like you know i i figured that when he shuts up i'll talk you know in radio like biz you know like and you guys you've done some radio

stuff it's when there's a whistle you chime in and when the puck drops i shut up like it's just i mean i i got great advice from from chris and joel micheletti took me out to lunch dude joe's unbelievable he wrote me like he wrote me i he got the i got the job and he takes me out to breakfast and he hands me an envelope he's like that's for later we have breakfast we talk about the job i get to the car open the envelope and it's like eight page loosely of congratulations this is what i've learned over the years these are some tips no way like it was just and he's the best in the business like he set the bar as far as the color analyst and uh so i've had a lot of support and you know panger and kelly and all

the guys with the Blues have been terrific. And Kelly Chase, too, has been kind of coming in and out. He's been awesome as well. There's one thing I noticed in my short amount of time there with the St. Louis Blues is the people, incredible. They have the foundation, just good people around the locker room. They have a great alumni program, probably one of the best in the league, I'd say.

They got all the old guys around, but they're all great alumni program probably one of the best in the league i'd say yeah they got all the old guys around but they're all great guys they are i mean just midwestern guys starts the top tom stillman uh he's a terrific owner and it just filters down uh the group's great the coaches are awesome panger and john kelly chris kerber i mean everyone my crews are the whole pr staff they're just they're just dynamite people they're fun i'm probably having more fun being a broadcaster than i ever did playing no pressure no pressure a little bit a little bit but not bad like ever what we dealt with ever you're right i always tell people you're like a stress-free healthy scratch i'm just traveling city to city and i'm just i can drink in the hotel bar like

no like coaches aren't gonna bug you hide anything anything nothing how would you grade your first year doing it out of the gate i was really bad at the beginning you know why and i'm gonna tell you why is because the team was struggling and you're too nice and you played first year good point first year yeah he was a player he's sympathetic and and but my first year you guys lost like it's like the coyotes had 12 the worst start in the modern day era. What do I say? But we didn't win a game in regulation the first 20 games of the year. And the one game we ended up finally winning, our first win of the season, it was in Philadelphia.

We were up 2-0, and there was two minutes to play. And they ended up fucking tied it. And I, obviously, Heater finished his part of the call, and I was like... You're speechless? Come on. Shut the fuck, first of all, fuck you. But I'm like, folks, I'm sorry, I don't even know what to say right now.

That's what I said on air. That's pretty good, though. It's organic, I like that. Yeah, it was honest. Yeah, and lucky enough, Alex Goligosky ended up scoring the winner in OT. And then that kind of turned the season around. And in the second half of the year, last year, during my first year, Coyotes had an unbelievable finish.

Ronta was one of the best goalies in the league in that stretch. And I was like, this is fucking easy. And the guys were like, man, when the guys are playing well, all we want to do is compliment them. Yeah. When they're not playing bad, you're like stuttering over your thoughts because you're like, I'm being too critical. It's not like fully genuine.

You're not Milbury. You're not like, what the fuck was that guy doing? Which is kind of funny too. So when you mic yoga, Ken, that's when you finally started doing good? Well, I mean, the team turned it around for sure. Not right away though. Not right away. It took a little time, but it definitely made the calls a lot easier

and just more fun. No one wants to be on the plane rides after a game. I sit right in front of the players. It's just hard. It's hard to be a part of that. The guys were just – they were busting their balls every day. It's frustrating because we've all been there. We've been in those situations.

It was unfortunate, but, man, they turned it around. That's what I want to ask was the one thing – maybe not an incident or a game, but how did they just – what changed for them that they started finally playing up to their potential? I think, well, I think when Craig Berube took over, and Craig Berube is like 1,000-plus games as a fighter. I mean, that's – how do you do that, first of all? You know what I mean?

He's got 2,000 pims, over 2,000 pims. So he takes over, and he's got this kind of healthy fear he instills in this locker room where he says something, and the players just kind of are going to listen. He's just got really good presence. He really grabbed the room right away. And they didn't have a lot of success right away, but they were losing games by a close margin.

So I think Craig Ruby taking over, his message is simple. He's like the NHL version of Bill Belichick like his answers are short there's no fluff the players love how direct he is they love the message and he'll just flat out tell him like you know you're not playing hard enough like you want you want more ice time you gotta play harder you're not playing hard enough it's just like i would appreciate that as a player i think the players appreciate that he knows when to kick him in the ass he knows when they need a hug he's a motivator and he's found what every coach is trying to find i think is how do you motivate these kids who are making millions of dollars it's not easy but he was that was the big that was a big change jordan binnington comes in this rookie kid drafted in 2011 he's been kind of like wrote off for the past x amount of years he actually got loaned

to providence last year told them i'm not fucking going to the East Coast. Yeah, he did. So he went to Providence. And he just was a situation where he kind of kept getting overlooked. As soon as he'd think he'd get a sniff, like he'd be the starter in American League, then they draft someone else or they'd trade for someone. Like he kept getting notched down. And out of nowhere, Chad Johnson didn't work out in St. Louis,

and they needed a backup. Billy Huso, who was the third on the depth chart he gets hurt so we have no other choice but call this jordan binnington kid up he gets called up philly shuts him out his first start and goes on a complete run so i think the combination of craig berube taking over his systems his messages and then they started winning because they got really good goaltending when you put those two things together it was like a perfect storm right and then they started winning because they got really good goaltending. When you put those two things together, it was like a perfect storm. Right. And then the wind started and then it was like a snowball effect. Everyone starts buying in and everyone's just like, you know,

pedal to the metal, let's go. So fun, dude. Oh, it's fun, man. Yeah, absolutely. And they found their groove. So I think those are the two main things. And I think that personally they were embarrassed. I think this is a team that had high expectations heading into the year,

needed to take a lot of time. Time is not obviously something that you can give a lot of in the NHL. If you want to win, you've got to win now. But it just takes time. Changes take time. And I think that they were embarrassed. I think around Christmastime, you know, there was the fight in practice. They're dead last.

I mean, everyone was calling them out. They were the laughingstock of hockey. And I think they Christmas time, you know, there was the fight and practice. They're in dead last. I mean, everyone was calling them out. They were the laughingstock of hockey. And I think they had one choice. There's no lifeboat coming. There's no sack up. It starts here. Come together. And now that I've seen it and been around this team all year, you know,

I think, you know, the term these guys care about each other gets thrown around a lot. But this team, like, genuinely, they're good guys. They care about each other. And at the core of it, if you have guys you enjoy and you like, you're going to fight for them. And that is the essence of a winning a championship team. And they found it, man. And it's crazy.

They remind me a lot of the Patriots in the way where they just keep winning. You don't know why, but somehow they figure out a way to keep winning. Shut down the first line. Well, the second line will score. Jayden Schwartz is on fire. Then they shut Jayden Schwartz down, and the fourth line goes on a four-game point streak. Then Biddington will get a shutout.

I mean, it's just like different ways of winning. Dallas had him down. Yeah, just whatever. No panic. They figured it out. And everyone figured, like, oh, they'll get it done. And then I feel like whenever they're down late in games, everyone's like, oh, they're going to tie it up. It's weird to drive with that team.

How was the feeling after game three when the hand-pass situation happened? Because guys on the ice, we're talking about a pretty composed team up until this point. You mentioned the Patriots' way. Even Binnington was fucking losing it. And I'm like, wow they they did get fucked this could be the one thing that does shake this thing up right and and were you a little fearful of that not at all I mean I swear to god like we lost that game and I think someone said like oh Blues won in six I was like absolutely like

they're not gonna lose this series absolutely not it's just that feeling you get they're never they were down by three goals in San Jose, and I swear to God, they almost tied the game. I think it was Robert – or Tyler Bozak scored early in the third. Robert Thomas misses. It was six minutes ago. That would have made it 1-1. They're right there.

They're knocking. But the San Jose hand pass, you know, it was unfortunate. You know, we called. The Curbs and I were obviously – Did you lose it? We were frustrated for sure. Yeah. And, you know, we didn't see it right away,

but then we heard the boos, and then we started seeing the beer bottles flying on the ice. I'm like, something's going on here. And then I see Binnington slap the glass. Braden Shen almost put a hole through the glass. Them slashing the glass next to the ref as they're leaving. Shit thrown down. It was just a ridiculous whole video scene.

It was crazy. So you could see the frustration. But you know what? The comments after the game, David Perron, all the guys, like we're ready for game four. I mean, this is a team that has taken on the personality trait of their head coach in the healthiest way. It's all about the next shift.

It's about the next game. They're not looking in the past. They're just worried about the future. And for a team that's really never been gone this far, especially with a lot of the new guys they brought in this year, it's pretty impressive. Taking a closer look at the series, what does St. Louis need to do to beat Boston?

Well, they've got to stay out of the freaking penalty box. That's going to be huge. And you know what? I think they're going to not have a problem with it. They were disciplined in St. Louis. They were disciplined in the Dallas series for the most part. Winnipeg got a little hairy at times, but you've got to stay out of the penalty box.

That's first and foremost. I think five on five, I think it's a pretty good even match. I think both teams have depth. Both teams run that fourth line pretty hard. They both have scoring. Both teams defend very well, and they've got great goaltending. Good overall team defense. Limiting high end scoring chances for the most part.

Goaltending. You think Rask is going to be able to sustain what he's been doing is that what you're relying upon maybe that to drop a little bit i think that's the hope that's the hope for all blues fans yeah 10 days because if it's the same it's going to be really hard percent 10 days is a is a long time they're hoping that it messes with his mojo a little bit you know i i think that in the dallas winnipeg and san jose series we would score goals from the perimeter like colton pareko throws a puck in the net ben bishop just misses it or you know like hellebuck just misses one under the arm but you know ryan o'reilly like is pivoting

to the corner and flips to the net and it goes like between his glove like we're like oh my god like i don't think we're going to see any of those goals in this series i think the goals that the blues are going to have to score they're going to be those playoff goals. They're going to be the ones that go off the shin pad or the butt. So I think it's just going to be, they have to be more urgent and more desperate to get to the front of that, probably more than they've ever had to so far in this postseason. Boys, before we go any further, hold on.

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You think this is going seven? Boy, jeez, I think it's going to go the distance. I just think these teams, man, are so evenly matched. I've never been so excited for a Stanley Cup final in my life. I think it's – I'm just so interested to see tonight's game. I don't know how it's going to go, but like you're saying, Biz, it's going to be so exciting because both teams match up so evenly. It's like – it's really like if you look at both of them,

I think the top end players boston has the edge right i don't necessarily know if st louis has a player as good as bergeron marshawn poshnoch right that line's nuts but then the depth wise is the blues so it's gonna be it's gonna be great hockey and it is funny because with the blues being involved i know the bruins are third in their last nine years st louis Louis is new blood, right, for the league and for just excitement overall for fans, I think. I would definitely give the edge to Boston up front. Little.

Little bit. And on the back end, I have to give it to St. Louis. You guys just smother teams. Your average defense height is what, like 6'2", 6'3", especially with Dunn out of the lineup. Is he playing tonight? I don't know if he's going to play tonight. He was wearing a cage yesterday, and he was practicing hard.

I bet you he was in then, dude. I thought he was unlikely. Really? Yeah, I read Sunday that he was unlikely to start. He was practicing yesterday? He was a jersey on? He was battling hard, but the problem is Carl Gunnarsson stepped in. He's been playing good.

And they're winning. They're winning. So it's one of those things. It's a good problem for a coach to have because Dunner's been great all year. He's been there forever, hasn't he? Gunnarsson? Yeah. Oh, man, he's been around.

Kicked the league a long time. Toronto, he's been there for a while. Right, but he was in St. Louis beforehand, correct? Yeah, I saw him this year for St. Louis, and I was like, he's still on the Blues? Yeah. He actually said that out loud. Well, on the air at NHL Network.

Usually when you get those Scandinavians, I feel like sometimes they're so just even keel and cold-blooded where just getting injected into a Stanley Cup Finals like that wouldn't rattle them as so much as maybe someone from Canada where they know the you know what i'm saying like the scandinavians just carry themselves in a very calm demeanor yeah yeah he's he's low-key guy he's we call him boom boom boom boom is he's like just as even as it comes he's he's he's a great guy and and you're right every time they put him in the lineup he just does well

he's a guy you never notice because he just makes, I call it the Ben Lovejoy simple chip play. Like Benny Lovejoy's made a career in this National Hockey League just by chipping the puck out. If I'm a defenseman or I'm a parent of a kid, I'm teaching my kid just chip the puck out. Just learn to chip it and get it out of the zone. And defend. And defend.

I mean, that's it. And Boom Boom does it. And he's been good since he came in. How about you think, do you agree that with Boston's success in all the sports, and this going for three straight, besides New England and the Bruins fans scattered across North America, everyone's rooting for the Blues. 100%.

Everyone's rooting for the Blues. No doubt. People fucking hate Boston. They do. They do. No, wait. Let Joey keep going. Oh, man.

He's like, the fucking beanpot sucks. I hate the beanpots. I never want them. Although, I was at the Garden this morning and yesterday and I looked up top. Hockey East and Beanpot Northeastern's banner hanging up. Proud moment. But no, you're right. Proud moment. People, they just want Boston to lose. They don't care

who beats them. And when we were playing San Jose, we were obviously, you know, looking at the Boston-Carolina series. We're like, who can it be? You know, I think we could have beat Carolina. I think we could have swept Carolina. I think the Blues easily could have swept Carolina. But then again, we're like, you know what? God, it would feel good to beat Boston.

And that history. I mean, Bobby Orr scored 49 years ago to beat us in 70. And it was just, you know, there's so much just deep-rooted history, I think, and kind of hate to some degree, I think, between the two cities. And, man, it's going to be a final here. This is going to be a good road. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. How did you like going to school in Boston?

Did you have fun here? I loved it, man. I mean, St. Louis obviously is the greatest city in America, but Boston is like a very close second. I love coming back here. The people, the attitude. There's ducks on the lake today. It's a beautiful day.

I mean, it's just like people are cruising. It's Memorial Day weekend. The Boston Commons packed. I'm running up and down Newberry. I saw a guy hit a guy today in a car, and he just kind of kept driving. I mean, it's just like Boston. And you're trying to say, fuck you. Yeah, that's it. And the guy didn't even care. He driving. I mean, it's just like, fuck you. Yeah, that's it. And the guy didn't even care. He drove.

The guy that got hit just drove away. If that St. Louis was like three PDs on the call, there's a detective and there's a camera. People just hit each other here and then just keep driving. I've never seen anything like it. No, I absolutely adore the city and it was Brendan Wallace who welcomed me

to the city and on that recruiting trip and ever since then, I just fall in love more and more with the city. And it was Brendan Wallace who welcomed me to the city on that recruiting trip. And ever since then, I just fall in love more and more with the city. We completely glanced over your NHL career. Well, that's why I had so many questions about Pittsburgh. I was like, you've got to have some Crosby story. You go from a guy who, when you got a free education, you got to go to Northeastern. You thought that was the Super Bowl.

That's it, yeah. Yeah, that's the top. yeah all of a sudden you're playing with with one of the greatest hockey players in the world and and at that point one of the more popular organizations on the planet you're right paul bassinet you're right you said you said i wasn't there when you were playing with pittsburgh i was in phoenix yeah why we we crossed over a little bit um no but truthfully you know just with you paul i know i've been dogging a little bit. No, but truthfully, just with you, Paul, I know I've been dogging a little bit. Todd Reardon took me in his office when I got to Wilkes-Barre, and I hadn't played a game yet. He's like, Joe, you're going to start on the fourth line.

I see this guy right here, and he points to the chalkboard, and it's Paul Bissonnette. I said, yeah, I know Biz from camp. I know him. And he goes, I know the kind of game you want to play. You want to hit. You want to run around. Listen, you do all that stuff.

You can do everything. This guy's got your back. And I did. I was full lying around. I hit everyone. I didn't care. And Biz just backed me up the whole way. And you could see why he signed a good contract in Arizona.

But then when he left and then Pitt, the spot opened up. And I made the team. I actually had my daughter. I had my daughter after the Wilkes-Barre year. And I had had this child and I remember leaving Wilkes-Barre for the summer. I'm thinking like, oh my God, like 40 G ain't just going to cut it anymore. I gotta, I gotta, I gotta start making more money. I gotta raise a child. Like this is my wife and I, I gotta do better. So I like balls to the wall that summer. I just went so hard and made the team out of camp. Very fortunately, they took a good

chance on me and spent four years there and playing with sid was man i mean it was stressful because you're like my whole day in practice i was trying to strategically place myself in line where i didn't have to go with oh i dealt with that right i remember i remember doing the one one two two yes oh shit Will you go ahead of me? My skate's broken because I didn't want to go against him. 100%.

I will admit, there's players out there that want to go against him. I didn't. No, absolutely not. And I never wanted to go on a two-on-one with him. Are you kidding me?

No way. I'm not passing to him. I'll leave that to Chris Kunitz and those guys because he wants to play with them anyway. So we didn't really play too much together

in practice. About half a year in my rookie season, I remember I at the red line i'm a rookie i'm just trying to kill time so i can get off the ice and meanwhile like sid's out there for four hours and i can't get off the ice so he gets off he comes in the neutral zone he taps me on the pads he goes hey come on let's go work on something i was like oh i was half scared but half honored like oh yes it's great i'm gonna go work on something with sydney crawley this is gonna be i wonder what he's gonna want to do like saucer pass back door, whatever. He puts me in the front of the net.

I'm at the top of the crease, and he goes, I'm going to take some half-wall shots, like a PP half-wall shot, like come around the horn there and shoot it. I go, yeah, great, great. So I'm in front of Brent Johnson, and he comes, and he takes the puck, and he rips one. And this thing is coming at me to the left, so I tip it, and it goes in Brent Johnson's gut. I'm waiting for the for the next one and he stops and he comes over to me and it's like puts his head down and slowly skates to me i'm like oh crap what did i just do he goes hey you

don't need to tip it just just just stay right there i go no tipping he goes yeah i go okay gotcha gotcha yeah so he gets six pucks lined up. The next one, he comes in. This thing grazes my left ear lobe. It hits the bar and goes in. I couldn't, I was like, oh my God, it was coming right at me, like bent, like the Matrix, you know? And then the second one, right by my right ear.

And then the next one, I mean, I'm like, pucks are coming at my jaw, my grill. And they're like, just grazing, like flicking my beard, and they're going bar down every time. I didn't flinch. I didn't move. That is how good this kid is. And then after about 20 shots like that,

where I'm just like holding on for dear life, he goes, taps me on the pad. He goes, hey, thanks, bud. That was it. That's how I contributed. That's my only practice experience. Thanks, bud. Quick tap of the shin, man. I contributed. That's my only practice experience. I'll say this.

It's like he's in the nicest way possible. He's like, hey, pigeon. Yeah. Come stand here. You might take on the job, but it won't matter. I ain't going anywhere. You're just going to the IR. Yeah, that's exactly what it was.

You're right. He was nicely saying, dude dude i don't care what happens here but go right there and if you say one word you'll be down in the coast not the a the coast it was like in sewer ball don't worry we got a good we got a good surgeon the team's paying your health insurance you're fucking golden baby we were playing sewer ball before the game if like if it hit him and you stood next to him like you couldn't have gotten it but like i got this one i'm gonna go stretch anyway you're good i'm gonna go to the room he's like he's like all right thanks no that's your out and he just gives you this one no it's fine i'm sorry but

no dude superstitious i mean i remember i would be the i was a dj and i have the pre-game mix and we went on like on a 16 game tear, like streak. And so I would keep the playlist the same before every game. And the first game of this run, I didn't know what kind of run we're going to go on. I'm playing Florence and Machine, Dog Days Are Over. He comes up to me. He's like, dude, this is a great song. I go, yeah, it's a good song.

He goes, I went to Italy last summer and this was like my theme song for Italy. I go, no way. He's like, yeah, we played it on a trip. Awesome European trip. He tells me this whole story. He's like, yeah, we played it on a trip. Awesome European trip. He tells me this whole story. He goes out. He gets a couple apples. We win.

I play the same song. He comes up to me the next game. He's like, hey, dude, this was my Italian theme song. Swear to God. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, I know. You told me that already. He goes, yeah, we went to Europe and he tells me this whole story again.

I'm like, Michael, are you nuts? Like you already told me the story. And then whole story again. I'm like, Michael, are you nuts? Like, you already told me the story. And then we went again. This goes on for 16 straight games. I'm talking like a month. We didn't lose. And then we saw

Crosby's autobiography comes, you're going to tell the chapter about the trip to Italy. Oh my God. I was like, in every game, I had to act like

I've never heard this freaking story before. Finally, we lose. And it comes out to me he's like he's like dude what a run on the song what an animal it's right i was just mind blown then wednesday night i got the shrimp scampi and then your song came out you're like uh truthfully though being the team dj in pittsburgh it guaranteed you at least 10 more games because

sid had his playlist and you had to be there to play your song i swear the coach in pitt played me because sid's like no you gotta play joe he's our dj i need the songs like i mean i'm telling you right i think so many players in the history of the penguins since 2005 whenever he came in the league have done the i just have to make myself like i i need sid to need me I remember Merle's was his roommate his rookie year he's like I just gotta make sure that he's like I need Merle's in my room like then I'll be here forever

I think there's been like over 50 guys who've always thought like just have Sid need me and I will never not be a Pittsburgh Penguin. Hey think about the guy who like is trying to become that guy and like he's like walking over and he like st over and he stumbles and drops his Gatorade on Sid's lucky sweater.

And he's like, no, no, no. And Sid's like, give me one second. Walks in the coach's room. And then all of a sudden the coach comes out and he gives you the old over here. No, I swear to God it wasn't my fault. But he does it in the nicest way like he never demands anything like the nicest guy but you're right you just y'all everyone wants

to be invited to the party you know what i mean absolutely that's unbelievable um wow let's talk about some time in phoenix yeah oh phoenix was great. Now, fuck that. Fuck that. I'm going back. You have any Geno stories? Geno? Oh, fuck. I mean, Geno. Geno called me 46 the entire time I was in Pittsburgh. That was my number. I was number 46.

He'd be like, 46, move, move, 46. He didn't know my name. And I heard later Brooks Orpik was telling me a story after I left Pitt. They had a rookie party, I think in Texas or Dallas, and they made Geno stand up and try to say everyone's name. He couldn't name half the team's name. He didn't know half the guys on the team's name. But he'd be like, 4-6, move, move, 4-6, get away, move, 4-6, nice shift.

I know. And then, but no, that's my extent of Geno's stories. He kept himself, and I was a scared little rookie for four years, basically. I didn't really say much or do too much. I kind of stayed out of his way. No, Gino was great to me, but, again, he just was very quiet. Is he not the world's biggest bully? Yes.

You said it. I agree. I would be at the front of the line, excited to go. He would just come over and he's just right in front of me. He acts the way Sid could act, but Sid doesn't act it. That's what Gino does. Or Sid's like, Gino, go do that.

I just want to watch you do it. They probably have a little thing going on. Gino, I look like a real asshole. Tell this guy he's going down the coast. That's unreal. So you signed in Phoenix? Yeah, I signed in Phoenix. It was July 1.

Big UFA monster. Oh, man. They were tracking you. My agent called me like at 1101 when the phone started ringing. He's like, hey, Phoenix wants to sign you. I was like, you think I should wait for more offers? He's like, no, I think you should just take it. I was like, all right, yeah, I'll take it.

And so I signed in Phoenix, and Dave Tippett was the coach. He called me that day. It was great, and Tippett was great. I had only really one year there before I got hurt, but, I mean, living in Scottsdale was top notch. But think about this. You're all of a sudden a free agent. It's a nice feeling, and, you know, you kind of want that whole, like,

Jerry Maguire kind of thing. Phone calls back and forth. Things are coming down the line. He's like, hey, this is it, man. He's like, he's like hey man three years at one one uh take it or leave it and you're just like yeah but like shouldn't we like wait and stretch this out stretch this out maybe a couple hours get a little excitement out of it he's like no you're you're your free agency's over that's it one minute wait man it's 11 a.m we got like the whole day he's like not you yeah but just can you sound on a few maybe rumored tweets to get my name buzzing there on Twitter? We were just hoping the blues called.

Oh, I know. No. Yeah, my agent, he shot me straight. I was my agent. And he shot me straight. And he's like, no, Joe, listen. No due respect. I think this is a good deal.

And I think you should take it. And I'm glad I did. And like I said, Arizona was great. It was like living in Scottsdale. It was hard because every day you come out of the rink and you feel like you're in the Bahamas, so it's hard to kind of get your head wrapped around it. You have to go play hockey at times, I think.

But other than that, Tip was great. I played with some great Yans. Yans and I sat by each other on the plane, and we were atrocious that year. Our team was so bad. That's because I left. You left, yeah. But Yans just kept me entertained all year long. Oh, I didn't know you guys.

Hell yeah. Oh, how about that clown. He's probably, honestly, top three teammates. Shane Doan's up there. Of course, Biz is up there. But Yanz is up there, man. He kept it light and he kept me entertained all year long. Just a dynamite guy.

And I miss him. And now he's going to trade to the Rangers, right? Yeah. So he got dealt to the Rangers. They just blew up the team. We had Devin Dumnick was like a stud that year. We just came to the rink one day in January. We're like, where's Devin?

Oh, he's gone. Like, well, he's our best player where did he go wait what yan's also kind of a bully but in a different regard whereas if yan says we're going to my room or we're going to my room or we're doing this we're doing that um buddy i'd fuck he told me to divorce my old lady i thought you know he just has that type of influence. When Keith wants to go, we go. Oh, my God. Yes, he does. Yeah, he gets his way.

He for sure does. We were in Florida, and he's like, let's go in the ocean. I was like, well, we got our suits on. It was like the night before a game. We just stripped down to our boxers, and we're in the ocean. I mean, that's just Jans. Whatever he was feeling in the moment, you went with, and you're right. You listened because he was Keith.

You know what I mean? You want to bring it up, R.A.? Yeah, I know. Obviously, it's a tough moment, but I think we'd be remiss if we didn't talk about it. First game, October of 2015, you fought Kevin Miller. Ended up on the receiving end of some tough blows. Now, you had a concussion, some broken orbital bones, and that was the last game of your career. I mean, again, we hate bringing it up.

Did you know that Miller was that tough? Was his reputation already that bad at that time as far as fucking with him? I knew he was tough for sure. I didn't think he was that tough. But I remember, so I was healthy scratch for a couple games, and you guys, when you're scratched, you get back in there. I asked Char to fight. I asked McQuaid to fight.

You didn't care. I would have fought a lion that night. I didn't care. I wanted to get back in there. I wanted to show to fight i asked mcquay to fight i would have fought a lion that night i didn't care i wanted to get back in there i wanted to show the team my coach whatever you know people listen and i hope you understand like how hard that is you know i mean that's pretty good for you i mean dude you didn't give a shit that night no you know and i wasn't a fighter i tactically i just throw i don't defend i don't have any i got short arms i'm short i got my gold chains weighing me down um but no uh oel got cheap shot in the corner i go in there and then miller grabs me and he asked me i said yep and my grip i lose my grip because his jersey splits

like eight inches so i have no grip and he pops me twice at the end and uh he cracked my uh shoot i my whole orbital floor collapsed my temple broke my jaw broke uh and that was the thing the last two punches and you know what like honest to god like kevin miller he reached out to me next day in the hospital because i was i was conked out and he reached out to me which was just a classy move and and you know what he could have kept going he could have kept punching because i wasn't going to go down like my pride was going to keep me on my feet but he knew like i think he knew on that last one of them like like yeah and he knew and he could have kept going he stopped and i mean god he could kill me but i remember i was going to the box and i thought my contact was loose so i was going to

take my contact out like because i couldn't see and like i just remember feeling like the top of my eyeball like was just hanging there because my floor broke and i get to the box and i just start like getting woozy and oels in the box with me because he got the coincidental and then they stopped play the horn rings the refs get me i get carted off i get arms around the trainer as i go to the bench and i just like completely broke like completely broke i knew something was wrong my face was completely numb i i couldn't see everything was just jammed up and decked out and i spent a few days in the hospital and they realized all the breaks and fractures in my eye and this that and the other and yeah it was it was a it was a

long thing that uh people ask me a lot like do, do you regret it? I say 100% no. This is what we do. This is what we do. And I was stepping in for a teammate, and you guys have both been there. You know what that's like. And I would have, like I said, I would have fought anyone that night because there's a lot of pride on me, my family, and my kids, and my kids were all there.

And I wanted to – you know, you want to do well, right? Absolutely. So no regrets. You know, there's a situation where, you know, I don't care how you leave the game, whether you're not good enough or you leave for injury. It's never easy. It's sour.

And it's never the way you think it's going to be. Ever. And it's never easy. Unless you're Ray Bork. Yeah, unless you're Ray Bork. It's one in a billion of, like, getting to the NHL and it ends the way you want. I know.

But, like, I'm curious. So the recovery, you know know starts after you get out of the hospital and my career ended it was it was injury but it was like death by a thousand paper cuts no it was like oh you know but like this happened to you right away but at the time you're in the hospital and you leave you didn't think then that was it right no i thought i was gonna be all right i thought you know as long as my eye gets back up to norm and my head kind of stops like feel like it's like bust through my skull. I was like, you know what?

Maybe a couple of months. We'll see how it goes, but I'll be good. And it just kept my headaches kept swelling. I couldn't ride the bike. As soon as I was making progress, I would regress. And, you know, so I did have concussions, but it wasn't until like two years later where I saw an eye doctor in St. Louis and he did some eye measurements and he realized that my left eye had dropped from the fight and it never quite came up. Even after the surgery? Even after the repair. So

I wasn't seeing equal. So your eyes essentially want to see in sequence. They want to see equal like a lateral line and as soon as one eyeball is lower and then you're you start looking left and right really quickly like you're watching a soccer game or something really fast like hockey your eyes aren't synced up so your brain's like what the heck's going on like so that's why all the headaches were coming because my eye was so messed up it was overworking it was overworking i couldn't they weren't they weren't synced up and you know we talked about surgery and it's like listen man this is a pretty pretty deep surgery there's scar tissue you may lose your vision i mean it's complicated so you had to

make a decision and you know talk to arizona about it they were don maloney was absolutely the gm at the time was terrific he's like joe go home be with your family you don't need to be here like get support your wife's got just had a third baby come on like be around your kids you don't need to be in he was dynamite don was uh to me. I've only had good experiences with him. He was really good to me. I had a great time there. He's a nice guy. Yeah, he was great.

That makes it not, I'm going to say easier. It's not easy at all. But at least if you're trying to deal with other stuff besides your health and time, you're like, I can't handle this. But if they're just like, do whatever you need to do, that just makes it that much better to be able to try to figure that all out yeah well i was just saying like some dark times in there yeah like like how bad did it get what was the worst of the worst where you're like man like i'm like i might be losing hope here because you're

a pretty positive guy yeah you know and and but i mean there's got to be some dark holes in there oh for sure i mean there was there was days where i couldn't like leave my house or my room and and you know what the hardest part is like you know you're young kids you're trying to be a dad you're trying to be a dad why why can't dad come out and play and what's wrong with them you know you know so that was that was difficult and you know being in arizona and kind of going through that and not knowing what's going to happen or what's going to when you're going to feel better i mean just there's no end date in sight there's no surgery with like a four to six week layover it's it sucks it's it's hard and you know i was taking a lot of pain pills for my broken bones and you know those are

those are us i mean a motherfucker they're a bitch to get off jans talked about it they're a bitch to get yeah i'm telling you right now it was hard for me to get off them but um you know i finally just quit cold turkey it was that was hard in itself because your body goes in like shock yeah because again like i was in i mean i was like bad pain in my face for weeks like i was like trying to recover you needed them i needed them right so but then as soon as you stop needing them, you're like, well, do I need them? Don't.

My body's shaking, whatever. But that was all great, and I got over that. And truthfully, though, without getting too sentimental here because this is spit and chickless. No, no, no, dude. No, no. We're everything, dude. Stuff like this, man.

This is good. This is good. I was raised very well. I have great parents, and I'm Roman Catholic, and my Italian background, and just family is so important. I go to church every Sunday. So it's one of those things where I just, I leaned on my faith hard and I needed it and it really pulled me out. And you know, just that was the biggest thing. And it started slow. And then my wife was so supportive and she did everything. And then, you know, we finally started, you know, getting outside a a little bit and going for walks and then we take a little vacation and slowly but surely

you know i just kind of started kind of coming alive and as soon as i started feeling better i was that's when i was like really lost right like oh god what do i do next my life yeah and my wife you're healthy yeah now you're healthy i'm like oh shoot where do i go and and i was frustrated and lost for a long time there and any hockey player that leaves the game would tell you it's difficult. And my wife sat me down and she gave me the best advice one day. She's like, Joe, you just got to go do something. I don't care. Just something.

Get out of the house. That kid who's calling you, call him back. Go for a walk. Whatever you want to do, just do it. And sure enough, it's weird because this kid named Kyle Kramer from St. Louis has been calling me for a while. And, hey, Joe,'s league tuesday nights or whatever let's go play i'm like no no no finally i said yes like all right well i go there and after two three weeks of playing i'm talking to andy strickland who works with the blues he does some like in between period stuff

so we like you're a great guy great guy and he's great dude he probably all started this whole thing in motion so and he's the one that referred me to curbs who end up calling me about the job so you know it's just like you know it's just a good lesson i think for people who are in the rut it's just when you're when you're clueless and lost like you know i read somewhere like chase the horizon like just just go do something and you never know like who you're gonna meet or what you're gonna do or how it's gonna pan out and um yeah and then i got the job and then now i'm here sitting with you fine gentlemen that's great because i talked to you i told you brendan walsh he he knew you were coming

on and was just so complimentary of you just as a person he wasn't even really talking hockey he said he beat you beat bc on your one weekend. I don't necessarily believe that. But as a guy, just a run-through-the-wall type guy. And so we'd never met until tonight. To hear that whole story, man, that makes my day. Because, you know, you go through a lot. You end up getting in a great spot now. Your team first year is the color guys in the cup finals. So I'm happy for you, and we appreciate it.

Thanks, Whit. Yeah, it's been fun. Thanks so much. Appreciate it. And obviously I was ripping on you about the peppercorn and mary and joseph um you know i'm not an over overly religious guy but it's very interesting to hear that your faith helped you bring you bring you through that time whereas you know whether what you believe about it or not it it helped you in your situation,

so that you can't deny. For sure, absolutely. So very interesting, and you're the man. I'm going to apologize. I'm on an apology tour right now. I'm going to apologize for yelling at you to get that puck in deep, although you were wrong about it.

And I know your pick. You said it's going seven, so Blues in Seven is the pick by Joe Vitale. Blues in Seven, baby. There it is. Although you should have got that puck deep thanks guys that interview was also brought to you by zip recruiter hiring used to be hard multiple job sites stacks of resumes a confusing review process but today hiring can be done easy and you only have to go to one place to get it done, ZipRecruiter.com slash chicklets.

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That's ZipRecruiter.com slash chicklets. That's C-H-I-C-L-E-T-S. ZipRecruiter.com slash chicklets. ZipRecruH-I-C-L-E-T-S. ZipRecruiter.com slash chicklets. ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire. What an interview by Joe Vitale. All right, over here fist bumping because I said his name right for once. I'm not the name guy.

You guys know that. You got it. But another roller coaster ride. We got a lot of positive feedback from the Ken Daniels interview. We don't want to be one dimensional. There's, another roller coaster ride. We got a lot of positive feedback from the Ken Daniels interview. We don't want to be one-dimensional. There's going to be some episodes where it's a heartbreaking or heartwarming story. Well, I couldn't believe when he said, I know this is chicklets.

I want to keep it funny. Like, buddy. No, bud. We love hearing your story, man. And that's exactly what it was. And we couldn't tell his story without bringing up the fight. I mean, that's part of his NHL story. And he was so willing to do it.

And I kind of got a little choked up watching him talk about how much pride he had and what he did and how he had no – like most guys go through hell like that. They're like, oh, man, I wish I didn't do it. He had no regrets for what he did, man. That kid's a fucking warrior. I got a ton of respect for him. Yeah, all the way.

Yeah, when he was talking about it, I was getting chills too, goosebumps. But, yeah, no, when we get guys on, on as you just said we want to hear their story we want to ride that wave with them and and bringing up that that fight like i wanted to know where he was at because he's he's finally gotten to a good place and and he even said there might be somebody listening who's in a dark hole like he was just you said check out the horizon check out the horizon keep the faith man and and you know he's he came out of that which man there was a couple years there where like i heard he was in a fucking bad place and i'm like this guy doesn't deserve that he's such a great guy great family and and the hardest part was couldn't even play with your kids yeah yeah so i knew i knew that's what he was saying right then.

We're so happy for him and how everything worked out. And good luck to him and the St. Louis Blues in the finals. And leaving, he told us, he goes, I think the Blues could win this series pretty easily. So he's very confident in his hometown team, to no surprise. Yeah. Hey, as he should be. And again, it's great for him, man.

Just the way he told the story, how he ends up on the radio. And that's a legendary station he works for. What do you mean by that? Because back when there was no TV and everyone listened to sports on the radio, that signal was so strong. They were Cardinals fans. For the Midwest. Exactly.

It was the strongest signal in the Midwest. So there were Cardinals fans all over the country because of that signal. No way. Yeah, I mean, I was obviously a media major, nerd-type shit, but it was pretty cool that if you're going to work for a station, that's a pretty cool station to work for. So anyways, back to the lecture at hand. Stanley Cup, a couple more topics we're going to go over.

The coaching. Cassidy outcoached the pair of cup-winning coaches with Babcock and Torch, then Brendan Moore. I thought he had a pretty easy time, but he's not afraid of changing the fly. He's got to be feeling confident right now. On the other side, Berube beat Maurice Montgomery, then DeBoer. He got a 300-1 team off the mat all the way to the cup.

He was able to get them to forget all about that hand pass debacle, win the last three games versus San Jose. I don't see either guy with a clear advantage over the other. So this is an even matchup as far as I'm concerned with the coaches. It seems like both teams are buying in. The leadership groups in the room are strong and not a lot of weak links. And I'm just, overall, I've said it, I'm just very excited for this final because it's so evenly matched.

And I do think it has the capabilities of going the distance. And ultimately, it's going to sell the game. If you get a back-and-forth, just raw, rough final mixed with old-school hockey and goal-scoring and some nice goaltending, bud, let's keep growing this fuck. Maybe we'll get a couple hundred thousand more listeners. Keep the change.

Who do you think Bataglia thinks has the coaching advantage? Like, hey, Bates, who do you think has the coaching advantage? He's like, who's in the cup final? Blues in one. The Blues. Yeah, I mean, there's not much left to be said. It's going to be great hockey, I think. I think first period may be a

little sloppy i just think you're so fired up to play the the the energy in the building how you've dreamed of this your entire life along with the layoff might be a little sloppy but then they get settled in it's go time and do you expect the place to just be the garden has moments when it is not as lively as you think it may should it should be you know what I think

is going to happen I think it's going to be kamikaze chaos gong show first 10 minutes first 10-15 minutes and then it's going to really dip off

for the remainder of the game until maybe the start like start to the middle way point of the third period you know because like everyone's so excited. Everyone's full of piss and vinegar.

And they're like, holy shit. I got to find those game legs back in St. Louis. Two things on the noise, Whit. One thing, you can't always trust the TV. I know, but I've been to games, dude. Let me get to two. But having been to all the playoff games, yeah, they have been definitely quiet some nights.

They need to step it up. And I think tomorrow night, well, today is Memorial Day. People are going to be able to drink all day. It's a holiday. Oh, it's going to be a gong show. Exactly. It's going to be a gong show in there. So something that we haven't factored in yet.

It's going to be a drunk crowd. We're going to have to give the advantage to St. Louis on home ice advantage. Because St. Louis fans have been crazy all of playoffs. They're blue collar people they're rooting for a team have bruins fans gotten a little soft where they're turning into i think i think in the lower bowl i think the city that's what i think the city is so used to winning you could not deny the fact that the city of st louis and looking for the first title cup for the Blues ever, the fans probably want it more.

And by the way, I forgot to bring up before, the Bruins are looking to get the first three titles in a row, baseball, football, hockey. The last time that was done, 1935, the Tigers won the World Series, the Lions won the, if it was Super Bowl, I don't know, whatever the title was, and then the Red Wings won. To put it in more normal terms,

you're saying it's like a guy who takes Cialis or Viagra to fuck his old lady every night, and then all of a sudden, you can't really get up if you don't take the Cialis. Or like, yeah, you take Ambien every night to sleep, and all of a sudden, you need to be just like ripping five Ambien to go to sleep. Okay. So, I mean, but fuck, man. It's a different sport.

I mean, is there that much turnover? I think it'll be – I went to the Vancouver games. I went to the – I actually went to all three of the games, three, four, and six. It was crazy in there. I wasn't at the Chicago games. I was at Pebble Beach. Not a big deal. But I expect that place on a holiday

tomorrow night, or tonight, excuse me, to be bananas. And Biz, to echo your point, is it turning into Toronto? I did have a lot of people in my feed that were saying the prices have gone up so much that there is, you know, the common man's getting priced out forever, but they're talking $200 just to get in the building, $250. But at the same time, you're in a major city.

It's fucking the third round, and you're going to have to pay to get in. But, yeah, I think there's less fucking loud drunks than there was probably 10 years ago. Having said that, it's going to be loud there tonight, man. People are going to be revved up, juiced up, and ready to go. How are special teams looking for these teams? Special teams, man. There's one other area where the Bruins

have a pretty clear advantage. The Bruins power play leads the playoffs clicking at a 34% clip, which is crazy. Scoring basically one out of every three power plays. Blues have clicked at 19.4 of their chances, which is 9th out of 16 playoff teams. The Bees certainly

scorched the Canes to help that rate get up there, but the unit is pretty damn good. It was good all season. It's better now, whereas the Blues was rather pedestrian during the regular season. It really hasn't improved in the postseason. On the penalty killing side, Bruins have killed 86.3% of penalties in the playoffs, good for fourth among the 16 playoff teams. The Blues at a 78% clip, which has them 11th of the 16 teams. So like I said, clear advantage for the Bs on special teams. The only area where there's a huge, I'd say, advantage. And even having said that, things can change series to series.

Things can change on a dime. And, you know, those percentages can get flipped upside down. I just had a moment, and it's a gambling moment. I don't get a lot of gambling moments. I would, if I was a gambling man, throw a prop bet on that boston which is going to score a shorthand gold in this in this series that's that's an interesting one what do you think that would pay um i would say it'd probably be a yes would be probably plus 180 and no it'd probably be minus 220 i mean it's because oh so not that good of a uh i think i thought it'd be like a

three to one yeah there's just i don't know there's so not that good of a. I think. I thought it'd be like a three to one. Yeah, there's just. I don't know. There's probably not going to be a ton of goals. And how many of them are going to be shorthanded? Shorthanded goals don't happen all too often. Well, I know. But they got a few players on the Boston Bruins team that are sneaky.

The Bruins shorthanded always get chances. Marshawn's the best. Well, that was the main topic. I think Marshawn's good for a short list. I would bet that 100%. But at plus 180, I don't know, is it worth it? You know what? Yeah.

Actually, I want to try to see if that's a line out there because I'm curious to see how much I got. I don't know if it would even be. I bet you. Dambling biz. Do I get my own corner? I know. He just looks at me and winks like he's good at this, boys.

Hey, how about a couple other random stats for the cup final here? Is this time to maybe throw out some just random finishers? Is that guy wet? First cup final in which neither team has had a fighting major in the first three rounds since 2002 with the Detroit Red Wings. So pretty interesting. In 17 years, there's been a cup finalist that's had a fight in the first three rounds i mean there's been uh there's been a few that have been iconic in a sense of where

as dumb as people say it is the talbot that max talbot when he fought i believe they were down three two in the series and it was in philly for game six it was and they were getting dust they were getting dust i think three nothing and car they were up three two i believe uh whatever it was yeah either way whatever it was it was it was max talbot ended up fighting carcillo and carcillo beat him and then and then and then talbot's just the crowd and everyone was like how like dude like you just got spanked and they for whatever reason that moment just shifted the. So interesting to see that there's two teams that haven't had one. So then we also got this one. This one I thought was pretty interesting.

It's the fourth time in the last 30 years that Selkie Trophy finalists are competing in the Stanley Cup final against each other. There you go. So in 2013 when it was Bruin, Chicago, can you name who the two guys were? Obviously. Tabes. Tabes Bergeron. So in 2001, Colorado, Jersey.

Can you name who it was? Joe Sackick. Yep. And Eliash? No. John Madden. Madden. Pretty good you guessed Sackick because I wouldn't have guessed it.

I would have guessed somebody else before Sackick. And then in 1989, Montreal, Guy Carboneau makes a lot of sense. Colin Patterson, not a name that well-known, but was a Selkie Trophy finalist. So Colin, if you listen. It's crazy how much that... It's crazy that nobody knows who you are, and I don't mean to sound like a prick,

but a lot of people don't, and you were a Selkie Trophy finalist. That's unfair. What's crazy is how it's kind of shifted where guys are getting so much of like freak of natures we're like john madden like when he won it he didn't i mean how many points did he put up maybe 50 yeah that's a good question like i don't know now you got to get like 70 points to win this hell yeah i think i think you're you're an 80, 90 point guy.

Yeah. I think the winner last year, Kopitar hit 100 points. Yeah. It is tough if maybe guys want to score as many points to get his notice. Well, the same thing that happened with the Norris Trophy.

Now it's like you automatically look which defenseman scored the most points when it's the best defenseman. Sure. And it's right in the word, defense. You know what I mean? Yeah. And my last cup final from Stack Eye I went, shout out to the NHL Network

and their unbelievable statisticians. Nice try on that word. Statisticians. Statisticians. But this one, the Blues, just got to be aware of this if you're a Bruins fan. The Blues have scored a goal within the first two minutes of the first period five different times in the playoffs. It's the most of any team.

So you think you're going to feel your way into a game? Not against St. Louis because all of a sudden you're down 1-0. And then cup finals, you're down 1-0, dude. Your asshole's getting a little bit tighter than normal. So I think it's going to be a great cup final. I think you said it best, Biz, that it's unreal for the game. It's different markets. I know Boston's going to be a great cup final. I think you said it best, Biz, that it's unreal for the game. It's different markets. I know Boston's on a different market,

but them playing each other is just interesting enough that I think a lot of people are tuning in. I think it's going to be great hockey. Well, I think it got to kind of like a Chicago level where, of course, people around that area, one of the biggest cities in America, are going to tune in. But they became so elite and dominant that a lot of people wanted to watch them get knocked off too.

And a lot of people are going to tune in to see the Bees get beat. And the city of Boston maybe finally lose, which probably won't happen. People will get, I mean, you're still getting shit on for your blogs and stuff already. All right, this is huge for you. If you can go full-time and they win and your victory blogs and everything,

you've got to be fired up right now. I'm jacked up. I'm excited. Hey, guys, before we get to the next part of our cup analysis, I want to talk to you for a second about Lalo Hex. Let's take a minute to talk about how you wrap your stick, all right? We don't mean the one you use on the ice. We're not talking about Sherwood or Coho or even your Mylac if you're on the street.

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Either go to the same site or stop by your local London Drugs to pick up in person. Lalo, we've done the science. You do the sex. And quickly before we wrap this up, you have futures on both teams. I do, yeah. So what is the plan for...

From that perspective, I really don't have to do anything. You're not going to hedge anything? No, I mean, it's already hedged. What I did when Colorado went to Game 7 with St. Louis, St. Louis was plus 550, and I was like, man, Colorado loses. I want to extend this somehow. So I put $1,000 on St. Louis at plus 550.

So if they win, I win $5,500 minus the investments on the Bruins. I'll net $4,000. If the Bruins win, I'll pick up like I think it's $16,000 minus the $1,000 on the Bruins. I'll win $15,000. I could bet the Blues to like really middle it, you know, to maximize. But don't. Why? No, because I mean I'm already a winner,

and I'm just going to probably let it ride out because I do like the Bruins for the series too. All right, so we need the predictions. Why don't you lead us off, Fizz? I think St. Louis is going to win this series. I just have a feeling. Really? Yeah, I think they got that mojo And a little bit more

I'm actually gonna I'm gonna pick them in six Wow Yeah I was gonna say seven They win it on the road You got them winning it on the road No they'll be at home I think in the Vitaly interview

I said seven But I'm gonna come off And I think they're gonna clinch that fucker at home At end game six Alright I wonder where you're going Yeah right and I think they're going to clinch that fucker at home at the end game six. All right. I wonder where you're going. Yeah, right. Well, I think honestly the two areas of the Bruins have advantage of the forward depth and the experience.

I think the experience is huge. You know, they got all those guys from the 11 team. You got Krug, you got Bacchus. St. Louis experience it just doesn't match. It doesn't match the Bruins. I know it obviously a lot more than that goes into it. But the Bees, it feels to me like unfinished business with that team. They won. They were happy when they won

the conference. St. Louis, they seemed, again, I said this about Columbus, a little too celebratory. You know what I mean? Like, they got to the cup. It almost feels like they exhaled too much, but they haven't won anything yet. And I think the Bruins still have more of a workman-like mentality. But I think it's unfinished business with the Bruins.

Honestly, I think they went three of the first four games, maybe two here, maybe two in St. Louis, and then they come back and win it in five. Whoa. I think they just got a little bit more oomph. Holy shit. And the zone two is in right now. Yeah, I think they'll either win two here or win two in St. Louis.

They're going to come back with a G. Wow, R.A., that's a fucking. Yeah. You have to bombshell. I'm even putting money to back it. Oh, yeah. They got to be plus 500. Might as well just roll it right into the gambling corner at this point, right?

I mean, I got to read the sponsor post in a second. By the way, the gambling corner is sponsored by my friend, Ed Vanduul. Another bounce for R.A. This guy... Yeah, I know. I'll pull up. I didez. Another bounce for R.A. This guy. Yeah, I know. I'll pull up. I'll pull up.

I did put a few things already in. I'm going to put my money where my mouth is. I'm going to take the Bruins in five. It was, where is it? There was only plus fucking 350. It's not even that big of a line. I thought it was going to say

450 or 500. Yeah, I threw a nickel on that. Again, I have the Bruins on both sides already, but I'm going to take them for the series too. This will be an official wager. What's the price on that? The price right now, I have the Bruins on both sides already, but I'm going to take them for the series, too. This will be an official wager. What's the price on that? The price right now, I think it went back up to $170.

It was $160. Man, I thought it might be $145. But also, too, I do need to say, this is a local shop that has some local sway to it, so that line might be higher than what you see at a more neutral site or perhaps Vegas, but I'm going to say just to reiterate, we're going to take Boston in five at a plus 350.

We're going to go under five and a half in game one. I think these two teams are going to come out really feeling each other out. Maybe not a lot of action early on. And then when there is action, you got those two goalies in the net right now. So I'm not looking at any puck lines yet. I'm going to go under five and a half for that. And the Bruins in the series, fuck man, 170. You know what? I'm going to beg any puck lines yet. I'm going to go under five and a half for that. And the Bruins in the series, fuck, man, 170. You know what?

I'm going to beg off that right now. I'm going to go Bruins in five and under five and a half. Those are my two wages for the gamble corner today. All right. I think it's going to be a great series. I think the Bruins are going to win, and I think it's going to go seven. I mainly say this. I really want seven games, And give me overtime At game 7

And I can make a video That might get a million views That's my goal right now Get me to game 7 overtime And I'll go nuts But I'm on the Bruins And I'm taking them In the 7th game

Very interesting What about G? What do you got G? I'll do Bruins in 6 Everything R.A. said I mean I was talking To you guys before I'm so confident

Like you would have said 5 If he hadn't I was so to you guys before I'm so confident you would have said five if he hadn't I was so rattled that he said five because when you guys came to me I was going to say oh you could say five too

no but I think it's five or six I mean I'm going to go with six but I just think this team is so good right now and they should have

another cup 2013 was tough so this group I mean like the Bergeron Chara Crecce group should have another cup. They're here for vengeance, so I got B's in six.

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Wow. Geez, I was fucking blacked out there when you were talking. I was looking at nudes. Team Canada escaped a loss. I think it was in the quarters to Switzerland. They ended up tying that game with 0.4 seconds left. That's Severson, right? Yeah, they ended up going to the finals.

But, boys, Finland. I think Finland had one NHLer on the world championship winning team. Congratulations to them. Team Salani was tweeting all about it. Imagine how hard they're going. How hard friends go. Oh, the whole country's going. Yeah, that's what I mean. Sammy Lapisto's brother was posting videos

on Instagram of the bar he was in and people were like jumping in the, some other videos had people jumping in like fountains, kind of like Ovi did. Non-North Americans, the world Championships is enormous. Big deal. Every single year.

I mean, that is like – So for them to win the title with the roster they had and the Russia-USA quarterfinal, I think it was, it was like an Olympic game. I mean, the talent that both teams had. So Finland ends up getting it done. It was also really cool i think the story of great britain getting in took the words out of my mouth yeah yeah dude they were jumping around chanting

what was it we we're the shit or we're shit and we know it yeah it was like basically like men's league guys going out there and getting it done i guarantee those guys were getting so banged up every night of that tournament i loved it um so Davies, the kid who scored the OT winner in order to keep them in the top league, I played with him in Cardiff. Oh, really? He was on my team in Cardiff. He was one of the locals,

so he didn't take up an import spot. He was very valuable because he's from there, and he was a good player. He was like a top two line guy in that league. I think he still plays in it. And then another local guy that I was telling you guys was a guy who found a cure for breast cancer, Luke Piggott. I've mentioned him on the podcast before.

So we had a very interesting group of guys, including the local guys. I told you about the backup goalie who I left my running shoes for because he had duct tape all over his to keep them together. He worked at an enterprise. It was kind of like the replacements. Yeah, they're playing in the Worlds against Patrick Kane and Ovechkin.

In 2017, they were in the 1B division and they beat Japan 4-0 to get in the 1A division. And then there they beat hung hungary how do you say it hungary hungary yeah newfoundland new hungary i have i know a guy gary who's really hung that's what happened and so what happened is they were down to nothing in that game they ended up winning 3-2 or i don't even know if they were down. Either way, they won with like 15 seconds to advance into the main pool,

and now they're staying there, right? Because of that win against France. That's a big win. That was cool. Yeah, it is cool to see another country moving up in the rankings, too. I remember you think back 20 years ago, Switzerland. I don't know if they were a laughingstock,

but they weren't anywhere near world power. They've kind of inched up. They've kind of inched their ways up. It's nice to see other countries getting up there. I want Australia to get good at hockey. Did I, Mike? Oh, my God. I went over there with the Olympic Network.

I got asked to go over there. Your very first episode of Chicklets was via Sally from Australia. Oh, well, there you go. But did... Was it? Yeah, it was. Yeah, because we were on my couch still. We were still doing it on the back of the old...

Really? Yeah, Wayne and God style, yeah. But it would be such a cool place for where hockey would be good. And, I mean, you could have a team in Sydney. Oh, my God. Tons of deadly animals to name teams after. I mean the women. Excuse me.

Yeah, exactly. Oh, speaking of women, I had my ex-girlfriend, one of my first girlfriends ever, from Vancouver. She was in town in Scottsdale on a bachelorette party a bunch of girls from calgary because her husband and the girl getting married husband are our best friends so she kind of got the invite awesome group of girls she fit right into the crew i ended up going out and joining them at the pool party i brought my other ex-girlfriend so i have both my ex girlfriends at this pool party.

They hit it off. They love each other. They're basically just carving me the entire time. It's amazing. Speaking of that, me and my most recent ex are talking again. What? Yeah, yeah. I'm so busy, man.

Hey, we need to get an alarm. What? A business back there. Play an alarm right now. Woo! I want my alarm noise we're talking again like like she's an unbelievable woman she has two kids she's obviously was married before but you know no you really have a special feeling for this oh yeah she can't she can't get out

of your life no no she's my soulmate i truly believe that and as corny as it sounds paul just has a little bit of problem staying on, you know, on the, on the, the faithful path sometimes. And, and,

and, and no, and boys, I got some, I got some, Paul knows who he is deep down. I respect that. I think she probably respects that,

that biz and Paul are different people. And then they know that sometimes I'm, I'm in the industry is what they refer to as a dog. Yeah. And listen, I've obviously realized that there's a lot of self-work to be done. And there's a reason that why I can't keep my dick in my pants. But I'm going to get to the bottom of it. And who knows?

Maybe it works out. Maybe it doesn't. So tonight, like a phone call before bed? Yeah, yeah. the bottom of it and and and who knows maybe it works out maybe it doesn't or maybe so tonight like like a phone call before before bed or just kind of yeah yeah play a little play a little words with friends beat her at that because i fucking smoke then she must be a genius if you're beating her at words with friends no because that you can dog because you can keep putting letters in there until you doggy that that's hey fuck you don't chirp my old lady you don't know i never would that sure is unbelievable by the way what's the canadian all the canadian canadians in

your show unapologetically canadian and it's all canadian famous canadian comedians canadian oh yeah dude tommy chong dead center square dude i don't even know who that is we kind of got off topic we'll go back to the ex-girlfriends. But this is my buddy, Noble Gentleman, based out of Vancouver. And he makes these really cool shirts. And we're actually in talks right now to do a collaboration with Chicklets in order to release Calgary Stampede merch. Where it would be like a cool like the Chicklets logo but kind of

like a skull and with the cowboy hat on it. Oh get me one of those. You just ate the most acid I've ever seen anyone eat before man. Tommy Chong. You never heard of Cheech and Chong? I've heard of Cheech and Chong but I didn't know. Okay so back to the ex

girlfriend. We went out yesterday then i i knew i had a 6 a.m flight but i fucking i went out last night with her and we we had fun like the old times like we like to have fun together and and my ex-girlfriend who's now married to an awesome guy he's a lawyer she just had a kid not too long ago i think he's a year old but it was just like a good like good people hanging out together and it kind of like an adult kind of right like yeah yeah and and maybe i i've kind of realized the value of my ex-girlfriend and what she could provide to my life and and maybe i can make a lifestyle change

in order to get to a place where i'm actually happy a lot of the time because like living the life i live on the road all the time and and and being a dog and being lonely i mean i haven't really been very social so like you get on the road and you're in all these cities and you want to go out and like just shoot the shit social i just gotta learn how to try to fuck yeah but you but you it's different dude because you go out and you're shooting the shit and you're social and you're not really like trying necessarily sometimes and all of a sudden they're starving standing next to you like i don't really necessarily blame you because i had i had the conversation where there was i was like listen i i get that i gotta change my ways it's just very difficult when like it would be

like an addict having access to whatever he wants because like man as as ugly as some of you listening think i am dude i i fucking get me in a room with chicks and i can talk and and i'm getting my ween sucked on like i got a gift man well whatever i mean i'm not like the creme de la croix i gotta i gotta have the gift of the gap my man personality goes a long way, man. Well, that's what I'm saying. Oh, is that what you have going for you? All right.

Yeah, guy. I mean, I'm retired. I've been out of the game for a while, but I did all right for myself. I know you might look down and say, no, you didn't. But back in the day, I can't complain. I'll punch my weight class many a time. One thing I do love about her too is like like obviously like i i need to work on some things but she like respects and likes who i am

as a person where like i'm okay coming on this podcast and talking about it because hey it's just like a you know i'm an open book and that's who i am and maybe somebody listening has had the same type of experiences where he's having a hard time staying faithful where it's like hey like it's it's time to fucking get to a place where or or or am i just going to be alone the rest of my life i i can't imagine being in a relationship when you where you couldn't be yourself in it i mean like you could never be with a girl that wouldn't allow you to just be biz like it is right but i mean it's i mean there's a fine well i mean there's there's there's a lot of women who wouldn't want me on the podcast talking about my relationship i think when you least expect it biz you're gonna you're gonna get hit with the thunderbolt like fucking

godfather apollonia and and that'll be it you won't even you'll never want to fucking again yeah it'll be a happy father's day card from his kid who's like in vancouver like something's gonna happen when you're not expecting it pal i know and i'm keep fucking doing what you're doing all right buddy well there there's the story about my exes and they had they had another day at the pool today they ended up going to maya i was oh actually i i ran into brock i ran into brock besser uh uh last night he was out with a few of his buddies and and schmaltz was out too. And I was telling him the story and I'm like,

yeah, these are both my exes. He's like, what? He's like, they're like getting along. They're like, they look like they're their best friends and having a blast. I said, I know. Maybe I'll be able to talk myself

into the threesome. Like joking, obviously, because the one's married and she's faithful to her husband. But that just goes back to me making a dog comment of course you know so maybe there's still a lot of work to be done that's alright we'll work on it we'll get you there Paulie

alright buddy hey well I think that wraps it up we got our predictions in we're fired up Stanley Cup here we're going to be back later in the week in the meantime make sure you come by Hurricanes Monday, Wednesday, Monday, Tuesday Wednesday 6 to 7 what else what? Yeah last thing listen to us guys 6 to 7 what else what yeah last thing listen to us guys

6 to 7 serious so tonight tomorrow Wednesday and you know what's great for all you Chicklets fans if you get serious you can hear a little

Tuesday show yeah a little Tuesday show for us we'll have our immediate reactions from Monday night's game on Tuesday's radio show

6 to 7 you can call in and you better bring a good question when you call in. So is Monday and Wednesday not serious radio as well? No, all three are, but I'm saying they can't hear us. Tuesday's the only day that's going to be after a game because there's no

radio Thursday. Besides our podcast. So either way, it'll be fun to listen to us. And I think... And you can't forget the call-ins yeah exactly so you folks can call in and then you can say stupid shit and we're just going to absolutely abuse you. It's what you in person

as opposed to online. Yeah. Alright everybody have a good one. See you later. But you're cold Let's go out dancing Go for the throat Spirit hatchet Wipe out the pain Make love together Stay on the path

You're not the only one With mixed emotions